Naraku's Demise
by Sesshoumaru8106
Summary: A fanfict that takes place right where the anime left off and takes you through a battle to finally defeat Naraku. Also orginally the first chapters of my fict that I will rewrite, The Legacy of the Inu no Taishou.
1. Continuation of the anime

---------------------------------

Naraku's Demise

---------------------------------

Author's Notes: This project has taken off sooner than expected. This is my grand masterpiece and the fict that I've been waiting to write for months now. However, I forced myself to wait until I have seen all of Inuyasha (including the 4 movies), and now that I have, this fic is finally going to be created!

Unfortunately, there might be a delay at first because from tommorow until the 5th, I will be away at Disney Land. Fear not any of my fans, I will try to use my brother's laptop (if I can) to write more chapters while I'm there, and I will continue this as soon as I get back home. Until then, juts grind your teeth in anticipation.

This fic takes place immediately after the anime series, right where it left off. If I find it's any different in the manga, I might change this a little or just throw some parts away that the manga may have already accounted for.

That being said, thank you for reading this first chapter of my fic, and I hope that you will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. (This is better when listening to one of the Inuyasha themes. I recommend Sesshoumaru's theme.) If at any time, you don't know what's going on (because you didn't watch the entire series), just look at the authors notes, and it will explain without spoiling anything that you haven't seen.

Now it's time for Inuyasha!

Chapter 1:

"INUYASHA!" a familiar voice cries out in terror.

"Kagome!" echoes a certain Hanyou after turning around and seeing his love, Kagome, being picked up by a giant tree youkai. "Bastard! Let go of her!"

Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango, Miroku, Shippou, and Kirara have been travelling together, closing in on Naraku. They are getting closer, but they still have not found his heart.

"Inuyasha!" came another scream.

Inuyasha quickly raised his sword above his head. "Kaze no Kizu Wind Scar" and a burst of energy came out of his sword, heading directly for the tree youkai that had Kagome in its hand. Kagome flew out of the youkai's hand, and the youkai landed straight on it's back.

"I'll take care of this one," Miroku called. "Common, Sango!"

"Yeah."

Their search was drawing nearer once that they had the Youki crystals from Gakusanjin, but now they have resorted to searching blindly since their crystals had been stolen by Mouryoumaru. The shards were suppose to lead them straight to Naraku's heart. Without destroying his heart, he was invincible.

"Kazaana Air void!" Miroku opened his wind tunnel.

"Miroku," Sango called. "It's no use! He's holding himself in the ground with his roots."

"I'll take care of that!" shouted a suddenly brave Shippou.

However, several others are also after his heart. Sesshoumaru, Kohaku, Kagura, and even Kikyou are after Naraku's heart. When it is finally destroyed, they can finally take down Naraku for good!

"Shippou-chan!" a suprised Sango said.

"Dynamite!" he threw a stick of dynamite, which blew the tree right out of the ground.

"Miroku! Now!"

"Right. Kazaana!" Miroku opened the air void again and sucked in the Youkai. "I wonder how Inuyasha and Kagome are doing with the other one," he said, closing the wind tunnel.

Now, the true battle is about to begin!

"Koun-gou-sou-ha!" Inuyasha destroyed the tree youkai with one final blow. "Keh!" He swings his tetsusaiga through the air, and it reverts back into a rusted, old sword and returned back into it's sheath.

Miroku had an inquisitive expression on his face."I wonder why those tree youkai attacked us," he said.

"Huh?"

"Yeah, that is strange," Sango added. "Tree youkai don't usually attack passing strangers." They stood there and thought about it for a couple seconds. Then, Inuyasha inturrupted.

"Whatever. We don't have time to waste on this. We still have to find Naraku remember?"

"Inuyasha, we have to check this out," Kagome insisted. "What if it leads to Naraku?"

"Inuyasha, I'll go with Sango and Shippou to find out what we can from nearby villages about the tree youkai, and you and Kagome continue on ahead and see if you can find Naraku," Miroku suggested.

"Heh, fine. I'll find him in no time," Inuyasha said arrogantly. With that, Miroku, Sango and Shippou got on Kirara and started heading toward the nearest villages. Inuyasha had Kagome get on his back and start looking for any signs of Naraku.

"If Naraku thinks that he can hide his heart that easily, he's mistaken," Inuyasha said, darting off.

"We'll find him no matter what," Kagome echoed.

Inuyasha continued running until he got to the side of the mountain. "Kagome, do you sense the Shikon no Tama Jewel of 4 Souls/Shikon Jewel?"

"I can feel that it's near, but I can't quite tell where it's at."

"Dammit! Where the Hell could he be hiding."

Just then, the wind started to pick up. "Inuyasha, do you feel that?"

"There's no doubt; Hakudoshi is comming this way, and he's bringing company."

A voice called out to them.

"So you could sense me comming could you? Well then you should also know that I brought along Mouryoumaru."

"Keh, you're just too afraid to fight me yourself!" Inuyasha taunted, letting Kagome down.

"Don't be a fool, Inuyasha. I just enjoy watching you suffer."

"You're just like Naraku," he replied, pulling out tetsusaiga. "You never do anything for yourself! KAZE NO KIZU!"

"Fool!" Hakudoshi quickly put up his barrier to block the attack. "You should be paying attention to the fight right in front of you! Go Mouryoumaru!"

Mouryoumaru came from behind Inuyasha and struck from behind, but Kagome quickly shot off an arrow, breaking apart its arm.

"How pathetic, being protected by a woman."  
"Shut your mouth!" Inuyasha quickly turned around and struck at Mouryoumaru with Tetsusaiga a couple times then he jumped up in the air. "Kaze no Kizu!" The energy shot out of Tetsusaiga, but Mouryoumaru quickly dodged so that he would only suffer a minor wound on his shoulder. "Dammit!" Mouryoumaru quickly shot a counter attack, shooting one of his arms directly at Inuyasha. He was quick to act, however, and blocked it with the side of Tetsusaiga. "Keh, you'll have to do better than that."

"Inuyasha!" Shouted Kagome, ready to fire an arrow.

"No! I'll handle him on my own! I will protect you!"

"Inuyasha," Kagome repeated, a little more sincere.

Just then, Hakudoshi butted in. "How pitiful. You fight to protect a human girl. Your human blood makes you weak, Inuyasha!" He swung his weapon toward Inuyasha, causing energy to come off and strike at Inuyasha, which Inuyasha easily blocked and deflected with Tetsusaiga.

"You think my human blood makes me weak?" he said with a twisted look in his eye. "I may not be a full-blood youkai, but I am strong enough to defeat you!" He lifted Tetsusaiga over his head, which turned diamond. "Koungousou-HA!" As he swung it down, diamond spikes came off of Tetsusaiga and peirced through Hakudoshi, leaving him as nothing more than a head.

"Always acting so irrationaly," Hakudoshi taunted as he faded away and disappeared out of sight.

"Hey!" Inuyasha called after him, but before he could say anymore, he was peirced through the back by Mouryoumaru's right arm. "Agh!"

Meanwhile, Miroku and Sango had been finding out rumors about what happened to the tree youkai. They had been talking to one of the villages in a near by town.

"So what your saying is that the tree youkai were driven away by a youkai child with white hair?"

"Yes, that's what I've heard. It was a little child with a barrier, and he attacked all of the youkai trees. He claimed his name was Inuyasha."  
"What!" Sango replied in shock. "He said his name was Inuyasha?"

"Then that means..." cut in Miroku. "There must be some sort of trap set up for Inuyasha. Sango!"

"Let's go Miroku."

They jumped on Kirara and headed toward where they saw Inuyasha going.

"Keh! You're going to have to do better than that," Inuyasha taunted the thing. Although he was bleeding from the hole in his stomach, he acted as though it was nothing. "Time to die! Kaze no Kizu!" Mouryoumaru quickly dodged it by flying up, and with little effort, hit Inuyasha with his over-sized left arm, 'causing Inuyasha to fly back. "You're gonna have to do better than that! Koun-Gou..." Tetsusaiga started turning into diamond again, but suddenly, he stopped.

"Inuyasha! What's wrong? INUYASHA!" He wasn't responding. He seemed to suddenly be possessed. 'Oh no! Inuyasha has a Yadori Sanagi possessing him.' She had just realized that he had it on him and that it was controlling him.

'Inuyasha, kill Kagome!' it told him. 'Kill her! Strike her dead and take her shikon shard. Use it for yourself!' It seemed as though he had subdued the Hanyou. He began to raise his Tetsusaiga over his head in Kagome's direction.

"Inuyasha!" she called to him, trying to get through to him. "INUYASHA!"

Suddenly, he strarted lowering his blade, and although his eyes still looked possessed, he seemed to be speaking on his own free will. "Kagome..."

Once Inuyasha had killed Kagome, Mouryoumaru was to finish Inuyasha off while he was still possessed. Yet now, he seemed to be resisting.

"Kagome..." he repeated.

"Inuyasha! Snap out of it!" Her senses suddenly reacted. She looked over to see more of them comming. 'I can't let any more get to Inuyasha!' She started shooting arrows at the bugs. Hundreds came, but she was able to hold them off, while Inuyasha fought against the bug trying to control him.

Kagome reached back for another arrow and shot it into the crowd of bugs. And another arrow, and another. It seemed to never end. She reached back again. 'I'm out of arrows!' A look of horror came acrossed her face. 'What will I do?'

"Inuyasha!"

"Ka-go-me!" He seemed like he was in pain, fighting the Yadori Sanagi for control over his own body. However, more were climbing on and he was losing control. "Sorry, Kagome..." His sword rose again. Right before he was about to swing at Kagome, it lost its transformation.

'What is this?' thought the bug. 'No matter. I will kill her with these claws!'

"Sankountessou! Iron Reaver"

"INUYASHA!" The sound of slicing was heard and she was sure she was dead. However, she opened her eyes to find that Miroku and Sango had made it just and time and destroyed the youkai bugs controlling Inuyasha.

'Hurry Mouryoumaru! Finish them!' called a familiar voice in its head. Obeying its master's commands, it gathered energy in its mouth and shot it at Inuyasha.

"You think that will hurt me?" He took out Tetsusaiga again and it immediately transformed. "Baku-ryuu-ha! backslash wave" The blast blew right through Mouryoumaru's attack and right through Mouryoumaru. "Heh, it looks like the creature is finally dead," Inuyasha said, saying what everyone was thinking. Then, Kagome shouted, "Inuyasha, look out!" Mouryoumaru wasn't dead after all, and was still intent on killing Inuyasha. Inuyasha quickly moved out of the way of its attack.

"Time to finish this," Miroku said, putting his staff straight up in the ground. "Kazaana!" He opened his wind tunnel and sucked Mouryoumaru in.

After setting up a camp to rest and let Inuyasha's wounds heal, they all sat around a fire they built. "What did you find out?" Kagome asked.

"Hakudoshi posed as Inuyasha," Miroku told her.

"What? Why would he do that?" Inuyasha butted into the conversation.

"It must have been to give him more time to set up a trap for you. I'm sure of it."

"I wonder if it's more than just that," Sango suggested. "Perhaps he has more planned for us in these tree youkai."

Authors notes:

Koungousouha - I don't actually know the actual translation for this one. I heard it a couple of times on the game, but I never caught the American name for it, since I was watching 98 of the episodes in Japanese with English subs, because it never translates it in the siries, I'm rushing to get this off before my vacation, and It was at the very end of the series.

Hakudoshi - For a certain few, you don't know who this is. However, if you watched far enough into the series, you will know that this is Naraku's son. He is bares very close resemblance to Naraku in everything but looks. As far as looks go, he is a young child with white hair and a long weapon like a spear, except with a blad on the end.

Mouryoumaru - This is a creation of Hakudoshi that he was experimenting with. Like Naraku, Mouryoumaru is made up of many demons and has regenerating powers like him. In every living thing, it says, there is haku (spirit) and kon (heart). In these creatures, they have only haku, which makes them harder to kill.

Yadori Sanagi - Also mentioned later in the series, these bugs can possess youkai and manipulate them as they please. They even have the power to manipulate daiyoukai.


	2. Battle With The Tree God

Author's Notes: Thank you to anyone and all who read my fanfict thus far. I know it's only 1 chapter long so far, and it hasn't been up very long, but there was a good turn out of about 50+ people who read it. However, regretfully, I didn't get any reviews. So please give me your praise and criticism, and just take a little bit of time to write me a review. After all, you already took the time to read it this far, right?

Now, more about the fict. I appologize for my lack of detail in my first fict and the lack of depth in my writing in it. I was writing it the day before my vacation, after watching a whole bunch of the last episodes, and so needless to say, I didn't have much time to dottle around with it. lol. However, I'm going to leave it like that because I sort of like the way it flows as an introduction. Due to the lack of depth, it makes it a quick read as though you were actually watching the anime as fast as you were reading it and a lot was going on in a short amount of time just like in the introduction of one of the movies before it gets into the main part of it. In fact, I might even incorperate it into a technique eventually.

Also, as for the future of this fict, everything in the description is still going to take place as promised. In fact, I have plans for much MUCH more than just that. However, I was never expecting the anime series to end like it did, and so I have to first close up the main story of the anime before I get into what my real idea for this fict is because as you might know, the last episode of the anime isn't quite the end of the story (and I fear them never completely ending the story). However, I will make it well written and won't just quickly take care of it. On the other hand, I won't make it take too long either (especially in perspective of you hard-core fict readers).

Again, I recommend you play Inuyasha music with this. If you want to make it really cool, you can set up a playlist and change songs like different charecters' themes in the background during different parts. And if I get enoug requests, I'll even add in little parts that tell you to change the music and to what. And I can even put the music on my website to download (they are all small, short clips of music).

Now, it's time for INUYASHA!

Chapter 2: The Battle With The Tree God

"Dammit! We still haven't gotten any closer to finding where Naraku's heart is!" Inuyasha complained.

"Calm down, Inuyasha," assured a certain monk. "It won't be long before we find out where he has been keeping it."

"Well we aren't getting any closer to finding it by sitting around." Inuyasha crossed his arms in looked the other way with a discontent look on his face.

"Perhaps we should investigate this tree youkai thing," Kagome suggested. She pointed her index finger up as though she were making a point. "Maybe we'll find out something about Naraku."

Inuyasha, with a stubborn look on his face, replied, "Whatever. We don't have time to be wasting on such trivial things. We're never going to find Naraku if we keep on dealing with stupid problems."

This time Sango stepped into the conversation. "Well, it's our only lead for right now, Inuyasha. We might as well go check it out."

"Whatever," Inuyasha replies with a bored look, finally giving in.

Kagome got on Inuyasha's back, and Sango, Shippou, and Miroku got on Kirara. "Where are these youkai, anyway?" Inuyasha asked Miroku.

"We found out from the villagers that the forest is just East of here."

"Fine," he said still looking pissed off that he has to waste his time on this. "Let's get this over with quickly so we can get back to searching for Naraku."

"Right."

Inuyasha took off in the direction of the forest, and Kirara wasn't far behind. In a matter of minutes, they could see the forest getting closer and closer. "Wait, Inuyasha!" cried Miroku. "This isn't any ordinary forest; it's a forest made up of tree youkai. We'll have to be on our guard when we go in because we'll probably get attacked."

"What are you talking about, Miroku. These guys wouldn't even be a challenge for me." He let Kagome down and walked over to the edge of the forest. As he arrived he heard someone speak to him.

"Who are you? Why do you come to our forest?" It was one of the trees.

"Keh, like I need to tell you anything."

The tree opened it's eyes and some facial features could be made out in the tree. "Are you, perhaps, the one they call, Inuyasha?"

"You have a problem with that?" Inuyasha said, as he pulled Tetsusaiga out of its seath.

"Inuyasha! Watch out!" Kagome screamed.

A tree branch suddenly extended toward Inuyasha. Inuyasha quickly jumped back and dodged it. Then another came. This time he side stepped to the right, and it went right passed him. Branch after branch came as he kept dodging. It wasn't long until he started getting bored of the game. "Enough of this!" He swung his gigantic blade over his head in mid air. A flow of energy suddenly began to circle the blade. "Kaze no Kizu!" With a downward slash of his blade, his kaze no kizu tore through the air toward the tree branches, ripped right through them, and headed straight toward the trees. There was a flash of light followed by smoke. And after the smoked cleared, there was nothing left but torn up tree limps and four distinct cracks in the ground caused by the tetsusaiga.

The other tree youkai stood as though they, too, were ready to fight Inuyasha. However, they all began to go the other way as a rumbling came from the ground. "What is that?" Miroku thought allowed.

"Is it an Earth Quake?" Sango suggested.

Huge cracks started developing under their feet, and suddenly they were turning into small canyons. A crack started forming from the ground and broke away right under Kagome's feet, causing her to fall in it. "Kagome!" Inuyasha shouted, running to catch her. However, he, too, was subjected to these cracks in the ground. He fell through the ground and was immediately met by what seemed like a giant root. Before they knew it, they were all captured by the grasp of giant roots that came from the ground. Then, from in between all of them, a gigantic tree began emerging from the ground.

"This must be their leader," Kagome observed.

It spoke. "You are the one who attack my forest?" It interigated Inuyasha.

"Heh, you damn fool, you've only been tricked into thinking it was me. I'm not the one that attacked your forest." He suddenly got a determined look in his eyes. "However, if you don't get the hell off of me, I'm going to tear you to shreds!" He pushed out with his arms trying to break the roots, and finally got free with a mild struggle by cutting the roots away with his tetsusaiga, which he still held firmly in his hand.

"You will die!" It shot out it's limbs at Inuyasha from all angles. Inuyasha quickly did a wide swing around the entire circumfence of his body, effectively destroying most of the attacking limbs and did the same with another large swing in the other direction.

"My turn!" He held his hands tight around the handle and swung it behind him. The entire blade began to turn diamond. "Koun Gou Sou ha!" He swung his large sword visciously over his shoulder and toward the giant tree. As he did so, Giant spikes of diamond flew from the blade and headed toward the tree.

"Fool," the tree cried out as it attempted to block it. It sheilded itself with hundreds of roots, branches and vines, but the crystals tore right through it and pierced into the body of the giant youkai. "What is this?" Inuyasha just "Keh'd".

The giant tree youkai was quickly learning the power of Inuyasha's sword. He decided that he had to get it away from him. It was the only way he could stand a chance against him. "What's the matter?" Inuyasha taunted. "Didn't have enough? Well, let me show you some more of my power! Kaze no kizu!" Again, the tree tried to block, but with little success.

Roots quickly appeared from the ground behind Inuyasha. Hundreds of roots quickly surrounded him. "You will be powerless to defeat me without your sword." It grasped the sword with large bundle of its roots and tried to pull the sword away from Inuyasha and a deadly game of tug-a-war.

"No you don't!" shouted Miroku, finding an oppertunity to contribute to this battle while he was binded by the tree's roots. "Kazaana" He opened his wind tunnel and started sucking the roots toward him. However, it only took applying more preasure to the roots that binded him in order to foil his efforts.

"Miroku!" Inuyasha shouted. In a sudden moment of concern for his friend, he lost the battle for control of the tetsusaiga. The sword flew away and landed in the ground steaming from transforming back.

'Oh no,' thought Kagome. 'Without the tetsusaiga, Inuyasha can't control his transformation.'

'I have to get tetsusaiga back,' Inuyasha thought. He tried to make a quick dart for it, but he, too, found himself once again tangled in roots. He struggled to get free. Pushing and stretching the roots around him, but as he did, the tree just pulled tighter. Soon, it was only a matter of time before it was pulling so tight before it was getting hard to breathe. 'I can't breathe,' he thought to himself. 'But somehow I have to get out of this and get tetsusaiga back. I can't allow myself to die. I have to... protect... everyone.' Then, he passed out. A matter of minutes he was concsious again. 'What's that... smell?' He took a deep breath. 'It smells like blood. Youkai blood.'

The wind started picking up and a powerful aura started to feel the air. "What's going on?" the tree asked aloud. "What is this?" The roots it was holding Inuyasha with suddenly became warmer, and eventual became hot. There was a destinct change in power and the youkai was strucken with an intense fear when Inuyasha revealed his blood red eyes.

'Oh no, Inuyasha has transformed,' Kagome thought to herself. "Inuyasha!" she screamed, but he couldn't hear her. Her cries seemed faint and all that was on his mind was killing the closest thing in front of him, the tree youkai.

Inuyasha began laughing maniacly. He stretched out his claws, and with a single sweep he tore through the roots. "Prepare to die!" He rose his hand up in the air. As he swings it down toward the tree, a strong, red energy come off and heads for the tree.

The youkai suddenly became strucken with great fear. It desperately tried to sheild itself from the awesome force of the blow, but it was no use, even while trying to move out of the way, as fast as a tree youkai could, the impact of the blow was too powerful and severly damaged the youkai. In pure reaction to the immense pain it was feeling at the moment, the youkai tightly cluched all of it's roots squeezing the victims it held in it's roots. "Inuyasha!" Kagome shouted out as loud as she could. This time, she was heard.

Inuyasha responded. "Kagome," he said. 'I must save... Kagome!' He began to over come the trance. He immediately began to head for the tetsusaiga. The tree tried to stop him, but it was already too late. He grasped his hands around tetsusaiga, and a barrier immediately formed around Inuyasha, made by tetsusaiga. It transformed in his hands, as he pulled it out the ground, and he sliced through the roots around him with a golden blade of energy that came off of tetsusaiga as he swung it up and over his head.

He quickly made a dash over to Kagome and sliced her down. Then he went and freed everyone else. The tree was near death and still fairly convinced that Inuyasha was the one who attacked the forest. With its last efforts, it made one last attempt on Inuyasha's life, but Inuyasha took its life first with a single Kaze no kizu.

With a sigh of both relief and disappointment, Miroku declared, "I guess this turned out to just be a waste of time. We couldn't find out anything from this."

However, he didn't realise that they still had more to take care of. An entire forest, in fact. "Doesn't this ever end?" Inuyasha complained, taking a look around with his tetsusaiga ready. "Listen, if you guys don't want to die like your leader, listen to what I have to say: We've been set up by Naraku and they made you believe that I attacked you."

"Who is this Naraku?" replied one the trees. This tree seemed older and wiser than most of the other trees, perhaps even more rational as well. "Why would he want to turn us against you?"

Miroku butted in. "We all have our own reasons to try and kill Naraku, and he was trying to use you to get rid of us. Please, just tell us where we can find Naraku and we will no longer bother you."

There was lots of commotion amongst the tree youkai. However, after a few moments, it seemed that a decision had been reached.

"We feel as though we can trust you," reported the elder tree. "We believe your story about Naraku and we are sorry for attacking you. I have heard rumour from the others that there is a cave up in the side of the mountain with a white haired girl and a young child living there. Perhaps that will give you some clue to what you are looking for."

"Could that be Kanna?" Miroku inquired.

"We'll have to go check it out to find out," Kagome added.

"Well thank you for you help," Sango said to them. "We'll be sure to take down Naraku and avenge your comrades as well."

As they were leaving and headed toward where the trees directed them, Miroku made an observation, "It seems like the tree youkai believe our story after all."

"They were probably just afraid I would kill them all," replied Inuyasha.

"You're probably right," Kagome agreed.

Author's Notes: Not much to clearify this time, but I wanted to make sure to clearify that I wasn't too sure I had the little white-haired girl with the mirror's name right because it just didn't come to me at first as I was writing this. However, sometime, when I feel I have the time, I will check back with the anime to make sure I didn't give her the wrong name.

Anyway, thank you for reading my fict. It's much appreciated. I hope you enjoyed it so far, and I hope that you continue reading it and continue to enjoy it. As always, reviews and comments are much appreciated. After reading my first two chapters, you might as well go ahead and review since you took the time to read it at all, which probably took you a lot longer than it would take you to fill out a review. Just let me know how you felt about it, comments, suggestions, criticism, random stupidity, praise, death threats, or any other sort of written review would also be very much appreciated. Also, if you're a dedicated reader and reviewer, chances are that I will probably read and review your ficts at some point, if they are any good.

That's all for now, mata!

Sesshoumaru


	3. Three Way Feud

Author's Note: Thank you everyone for reading through my 2nd chapter, and apparently continuing on to my 3rd chapter. I got a grand total of 1 more person since I posted my last chapter, but I can't feel too bad about it since it was at like 3 in the morning, and it's only a couple hours later. (btw, it was actually 43 people, not 50+ lolz).

What you can expect in future chapters: I'm going to try and add a lot more depth to my writing. After reading more chapters of my friend's fict which ends up taking some rather psychotic twists near the end which had my head ping pong-ing at how OOC Sesshoumaru seemed (of course everything was clarified and justified according to the story). If you want to read it, he is HennyoRyu7, and it's like his only fic. So I couldn't really stir you wrong with that.

What off topic there (sorry it's very early and I haven't slept). I'm going to be experimenting with a few things to add more flavor to my writing so that the excitement will continue to grow throughout my fict. Also, I'm hoping that one of these days, I can have an author note shorter than 3 paragraphs. . ;;

Now it's time for Inuyasha!

Chapter 3: Three Way Feud

Sesshoumaru stood on the top of a tall cliff overlooking a decently large forest. Passed the forest, there was a cluster of a couple rather large mountains. He could tell he was getting closer to closing in on Naraku's position. He was determined to be the one to kill him. 'I will not let you live, Naraku.'

"Jakken, Rin. Let's go." They both nodded and made a sound of confirmation.

As usual, Rin was riding on Ah-Un. As for Jakken, he followed Sesshoumaru closely behind on foot, even though that usually caused him to be left behind a lot, but it also allowed him to assist Sesshoumaru quicker if he ever needed him, which he never truly did. "Lord Sesshoumaru, do you know where we are going?" Jakken asked. Sesshoumaru suddenly stopped walking. Jakken, however, didn't and ran straight into Sesshoumaru's leg. He scrambled back onto his feet in a slight fright. Sesshoumaru glared at him and then continued on with, "Let's keep moving."

Meanwhile, Kouga was still trying to track down Naraku as well. He wasn't having much luck either. "Damn, where the Hell could that guy be hiding."

"Kouga!"

"Wait up!" Following far behind Kouga are his two companions desperately trying to keep up with as usually. "Do we really have to go so fast?"

"Can't we slow it down a bit?" agreed the other.

"Quit your whining, both of you." He had a cocky smirk on like usual. "We got to find that jerk and avenge our fallen comrades. That's not something we can slow down for." His mind suddenly seemed to wander for half a second and a slight look of shyness appeared on his face as it occurred to him that Kagome was also looking for Naraku. "Besides, if we don't hurry up, Kagome might end up facing Naraku before we get a chance to take care of him, and we can't trust that dog-crap to protect my woman!" The two just gave each other a look of utter defeat because they knew that they would never win with Kouga. "Now common, I think I spell something."

Sesshoumaru's aim was the mountain. He decided that would be the best place for Naraku to hide in if he were anywhere around the area. When they reached the end of the forest, he stopped. "Rin."

"Yes, Sesshoumaru-sama?"

"You stay here with Ah-Un."

"Hai! (yes)"

"Jakken." Sesshoumaru began walking again. Jakken followed quickly behind after saying, "Yes, Lord Sesshoumaru."

As Sesshoumaru began to approach the mountain, he couldn't feel any youki (youkai energy) come from anywhere in it. However, somehow, he knew that this was where he was hiding. Almost like a sixth sense. "Lord Sesshoumaru!" Jakken exclaimed with much excitement. "Look Lord Sesshoumaru, the youki crystal we got from Kagura. It is responding to this mountain!"

"There is no doubt about it. This is where Naraku is hiding it."

Inuyasha began growing impatient. Everyone was taking so long to get ready to go, and they were starting the day off later than usual. Everyone insisted on eating breakfast before they left, though, and even Inuyasha slurped down a cup of instant ramen. However, his haste in eating it was in vain, since it seemed like nobody else was in a great hurry to start the day off searching for Naraku without any leads. However, they realized how anxious Inuyasha was to find Naraku. So they hurried a little bit.

"Shall we go?" proposed the monk.

A big vain appeared on Inuyasha's head. "I've been prosing that for the passed hour!" he complained, obviously very annoyed that they still haven't begun searching for Naraku yet.

"Inuyasha, we've been searching for Naraku blindly for 3 days straight. We don't even have a way of locating him. It's kind of hard to be enthusiastic about it," Kagome explained.

"Whatever, let's just get going."

There air seemed pretty calm all morning, but coincidently enough, the breeze picked up right at that moment blowing Inuyasha's hair slightly to the left as he walked. The search seemed futile, but Inuyasha wouldn't give up on it. He was determined to keep searching, even if he had no way of finding him except randomly stumbling upon his hideout.

They figured out from the tree youkai that there was a cave in the mountain that had a girl in a baby living in it that matched the description of Kanna and Hakudoushi. They figured that they were going to check there first, as soon as they could find it, at least. They had been aimlessly scaling the sides of the mountains that the tree youkai pointed them to, but still haven't found the cave they were talking about.

"What are you doing here?" Sesshoumaru asked aloud without even looking back to the approaching wolf youkai.

"It's you again. What the Hell are you up to?" Kouga replied.

"Don't ask me foolish questions. I'm off to kill Naraku, of course." At that, he turned slightly so that he could look at Kouga with a sideways glance.

"Like Hell you are! Naraku's mine!" Kouga replied very cocky as usual.

"In that case," said Sesshoumaru, drawing his tokijin. "It seems I will have to take care of you first."

"Bring it on!"

Kouga was the first one to make a move. Sesshoumaru didn't usually make the first move, and when he did, it was usually some easy to dodge move that would simply to things going. "Take this!" Kouga jumped up in the air did a complete turn and swung a very strong kick at Sesshoumaru. Sesshoumaru stepped back quickly and dodged it and countered with his kenatsu attack (see author notes on bottom for more detail).

Kouga landed on the ground and quickly moved out of the way, skidding on the ground. He retaliated be dashing over to Sesshoumaru and delivering a barrage of punches and kicks that Sesshoumaru effortlessly dodged. "Hey, you're not bad," Kouga said in a cocky voice. Sesshoumaru replied coldly, "Don't take me so lightly."

Suddenly, Kagome's senses started to pick up. "Inuyasha, I sense the shikon shards! There's two of the. So it…"

"You don't have to tell me; I could smell it from a mile a way. But why do I smell Kouga and Sesshoumaru. Are they fighting?"

"What? You smell Sesshoumaru too?" repeated Shippou.

"There's no mistaking it," Inuyasha needlessly confirmed. "I'll go on ahead. You guys stay here. I have some old scores to settle, and I don't want you interfering."

"Inuyasha!" Kagome called to him, but there was no stopping him. He was way too fast. "Common, we have to follow him and make sure he doesn't get hurt!"

"Right." They all got on Kirara and headed after Inuyasha. "Kirara, don't lose Inuyasha's scent." She gave a growl to confirm that she understood.

Sesshoumaru was the first to sense it. "Inuyasha," he said coldly. He glanced to his right, holding tokijin in his hand, in the direction Inuyasha was coming from.

"What?" Kouga said in shock, dropping his guard for a second. Then he sensed it, too. "Heh, dog-crap is coming to? Looks like this is going to be fun."

Inuyasha jumped up and landed facing the two other combatants. "Sorry I'm late," he said jokingly.

"Inuyasha," Sesshoumaru said again. "You came to destroy Naraku as well? I shall defeat him myself, and if you get in my way, I will kill you as well."

"Keh, try it."

All three warriors stood in a triangular shape in the forest. All of them were ready and just waiting for somebody else to make the first move. The tension was heavy as they stood with weapons drawn and guards up shifting their eyes from each other to see who was going to make the first strike.

All at once, almost as though they were reading each other's minds, they all darted off at each other like a bolt of lightning. Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha clashed blades, and Kouga swung a roundhouse kick at Sesshoumaru. Sesshoumaru released his sword from Inuyasha's and quickly dodged the kick. This was immediately followed by Inuyasha doing kaze no kizu to Sesshoumaru, which Sesshoumaru merely cut right through with tokijin. At the same time Kouga threw a strong-powered punch at Inuyasha that he deflected with his sword.

Sesshoumaru flew back and did a back flip onto a branch and darted at Kouga. Inuyasha was busy dodging a jumping back kick from Kouga and then began his counter attack. Kouga caught on to Sesshoumaru's attack just in time to miss Sesshoumaru's feet slamming him through the ground at full speed.

Inuyasha swung his blade over his head and down as fast as he could and did a kaze no kizu directed right for both Kouga and Sesshoumaru. It was already too close to get out of the way so Sesshoumaru blocked it with tokijin's own kenatsu attack, and Kouga ended up taking the whole impact. However, it put him in a perfect position to land his roundhouse right into Sesshoumaru's back.

Sesshoumaru retaliated by swinging the tokijin around and slicing the air with a yellow energy, but Kouga was able to dodge it by doing a backwards handstand onto his feet. Then Sesshoumaru immediately had to dodge Inuyasha's next Kaze no Kizu, but in the blinding light, he didn't notice Kouga coming up on him until he socked him right in the face.

All three warriors retreated back to a triangle formation again. None of them were badly injured at all. They had already grown accustom to such intense fights, even though they had all been hit with strong blows.

At that time, Kagome and the others were just arriving on Kirara's back. "Inuyasha!" She screamed! "Are you alright?"

"Kagome, stand back. I'll handle this!" Inuyasha replied.

"Kagome!" Kouga suddenly seemed oblivious to everything around him. "You've come to watch me fight." All Kagome could do was stand there and giggle a little bit because she was way to nice to be able to ever tell him that she just wasn't interested, and even though he already knew that deep down, he still refused to believe that, especially if it meant losing to dog-crap, he would think.

Of course, the amount of attention Kouga was giving to Kagome caught Inuyasha's attention. "Keep your hands off of Kagome you mangy wolf." Inuyasha did a kaze no kizu at Kouga, which he dodges with ease having completely seen it coming.

Sesshoumaru decided to take advantage of the moment. "Fools!" he declared and swung his tokijin, using its kenatsu attack again. Both of them were hit with the full impact of the attack. In retaliation, Kouga just a huge chain of kicks to Inuyasha from a roundhouse to a spinning back kick and into a crescent kick and then into a dragon kick and an aerial spinning back kick, and after dodging all of those effortlessly, he couldn't dodge Inuyasha's kaze no kizu and got hit by its blast. Thus the fight was on again. Kagome didn't even bother getting involved. She was afraid she would miss her mark because they were all moving so fast. Sango and Miroku were equally as helpless against two full blooded youkai. So they could only stand and watch and believe in Inuyasha while staying out of the way.

The fight continued on as fierce as ever. Sesshoumaru used kenatsu, directed toward Inuyasha, and he turned around and turned it into Bakuryuuha, which Sesshoumaru then deflected using Souryuuha. After that Kouga began an assault on Inuyasha, which he countered with koun gou sou ha that Kouga dodged fairly easily and then had to dodge Sesshoumaru's Dokacho (poison claws) as he quickly put away his sword for a moment to use and then drew it back out.

The battle kept continuing for a long time. All three warriors were taking lots of hits, but still had a lot of fight left in them and refused to let the others defeat them and most importantly wouldn't allow any others to tarnish their pride. However, the battle had final ended when Sesshoumaru suddenly put away his tokijin and stopped fighting. Both Inuyasha and Kouga just stared at him. "I'm not going to waste any more time on you two," he said. And as spontaneously as the battle began, it ended. "Do as you like," he spoke again. "No matter what you do, I will kill Naraku with my own claws." And he walked away.

Author Notes: Kenatsu is what I like to think of as the Tokijin equivalent to the Tetsusaiga's Kaze no Kizu. Even if you are a big Inuyasha fan (which you probably are if you are reading my fic), and even if you do watch it in Japanese instead of the HORRIBLE English dubs, you still might not know exactly which attack this is at first read. Like most other attacks Sesshoumaru does, when he does attacks with his Tokijin, he doesn't normally announce what attack he is doing, with the exception of Souryuuha (Dragon Strike). The ONLY other attack he mentions for his Tokijin out of the several common ones he does is Kenatsu, which is only announced one single time in the third movie.

Kenatsu is that big blue energy, usually a sphere, but sometimes it turns into an attack that follows the ground like kaze no kizu, that he releases from his sword.

Anyway, thank you for reading my 3rd chapter. I hope you remain loyal readers, and I will remain a loyal writer. And Hopefully, in the future, I will be able to maintain this quality of writing.

Ja mata.

Sesshoumaru


	4. Showdown With Hakudoushi

Author's Notes: After reviewing my last chapter (like I always do before I begin a new chapter in order to keep my train of thoughts connected), I realized that I really could have written more. And I really would have liked to, but sometimes it's hard to put in perspective of the reader and know when enough is enough. So this chapter might be longer than the last until I finally find the perfect length (probably based on number of pages).

Also, thank you to Shainingu for being my first unanimous fan. I would also like to recommend her story to those of you who like romance. I've only read the first chapter so far, but it seems like it's going to be really cute. (It's the one about Christmas), but I'm sure the rest of her stories are really good, too.

Now, it's time for Inuyasha! cheers for shortest intro author note so far

Chapter 4: Showdown with Hakudoushi

'I will kill Naraku with my own claws, no matter what,' thought Sesshoumaru. 'I will not be made a fool of by an inferior demon.'

Jakken was lost in thought at that moment as well. 'Sesshoumaru sure seems to be intent on killing Naraku. He seems very angry that Naraku made him go through so much inconvenience.' He took a look back at the little girl accompanying them on Ah-Un's back. 'Or perhaps he really does just care about that child. And if that's so, maybe he really cares about me too!' He began gazing off with a twinkle in his eye at the thought of being held precious to Sesshoumaru's heart. However, in his moment of daydreaming, he ended up tripping and running into the back of Sesshoumaru's leg.

Sesshoumaru glared at him with a very cold look which was also influenced by his malice toward Naraku, which seemed to be directed at Jakken at that moment. Jakken quickly scrabbled to his feet and began groveling. "Forgive me, Lord Sesshoumaru. I was distracted and…. Huh?" His sentence was cut short as Sesshoumaru just kept on walking. 'Perhaps he really doesn't care about me.' He bowed his head and a sweat drop appeared on his large, bald head. Next thing he knew, he was being trampled by Ah-Un, as it followed behind Sesshoumaru with Rin on its back.

Rin looked back. "Uh? Oh! Sorry, Jakken-sama." Jakken got on his feet quickly, almost instantly, with a large pulsating lump on his head where Ah-Un just stepped on him.

"Watch where you're going next time," he screamed, flailing his arms and legs wildly for a more dramatic effect. However, like Sesshoumaru, Rin just kept walking without paying any attention to him.

He paused for a moment with a new sweat drop on his head. "She's not even paying attention," he said quietly to himself. Then he noticed how far they were getting ahead of him. "Hey! Wait up! Sesshoumaru! Rin! Wait up!" he yelled, coming after them.

Inuyasha had agreed to a day of rest. He felt pretty warn out after his last battle with Sesshoumaru and Kouga, and he thought that it might be a good idea if they rested so they can fight Naraku at full strength.

Everyone was each off doing their own thing. Shippou and Kirara went off to play and practice their techniques so that when it finally came time to fighting Naraku, they could help out some, too. "I'm still a child, but that's no excuse to not be strong," Shippou told everyone, and they all smiled and laughed a little, commemorating his bravery and determination. Well, everyone except for Inuyasha, of course:

"Keh, yeah right, Shippou. What could you possibly do that could help us defeat Naraku? You can hardly even call yourself a youkai!" Inuyasha taunted. Of course, Kagome wasn't very happy about how mean Inuyasha was being to Shippou, especially when Shippou was trying his best to be strong and help out.

"Inuyasha, sit boy!" Inuyasha, with a slight bit of sudden shock, was hurled directly into the ground and did a face plant in the dirt. Inuyasha wasn't very happy at this, of course, but before he could get out, "Why… you…" Kagome came back with another "Sit" folding her arms, knowing that as long as Inuyasha still had his rosary on, he was powerless to do anything at that moment.

As for everybody else, they decided to take it as more of a day of relaxation and fun than a day to train and become stronger. Sango decided that she would like to go pick some beautiful flowers and collect any useful herbs she found for medicine. And Miroku, of course decided that he would join her. It sounded like fun to him, of course, only because Sango was there. On the other hand, she was his fiancée, after all.

They managed to find a large, beautiful place full of lots of exotic flowers in between two of the mountains that seemed to stretch endlessly like gazing out into a colorful ocean. "Wow! I've never seen so many exotic flowers in one place before!" Sango exclaimed in an obvious excitement. Miroku wasn't really one for flowers, but he could definitely recognize beauty when he saw it, and he, too, was quite taken by the extravagant sight of the field of flowers.

"It truly is a natural wonder of beauty," he agreed. "However, not nearly as beautiful as you," he said to Sango with his usually flirty ways. Sango just blushed and looked away. Being part of a clan of taija (demon slayers) most of her life, she wasn't always good at handling flattery. Yet, the moment of flattery took a turn when Miroku's seemingly possessed hand found its way to Sango's rear.

Her face filled with uncontrolled redness, whether it was anger or her blushing, one could not tell, but either way, she turned around and slapped Miroku across the face. Miroku just put his hand to the red pulsating spot on his cheek and declared, "Ah, never will I grow tired of being slapped by you, Sango."

Sango blushed a little and wore a slightly shocked expression, which quickly turned into a gentle smile, as she took Miroku's arm to take him in the field of flowers. Miroku smiled back, as he grasped her arm in return and went with her to gather flowers.

As for Inuyasha and Kagome, since everyone else had left to do their own thing, those two were left alone by themselves. Kagome had decided to lead Inuyasha to the river next to the mountain where they could peacefully talk.

"Common, Inuyasha! This way!" She said tugging on his hand, urging him to come along, as she smiled so gently and happily that she finally could be with Inuyasha. For her, all other problems seemed to melt away. Naraku, Kikyou, Sesshoumaru, and even worrying about how to one day tell Kouga that she didn't feel the same way about him as he so compassionately felt about her. These things were all always on her mind, constantly worrying her, but for right now all of those and even her greatest worry in the world, how Inuyasha truly felt about her, just seemed to melt away because with every little gesture he made, she could tell that deep down, he felt the same way about her.

"Hey, wait a minute!" he protested. "Where exactly are you taking me?" Inuyasha said, giving a half hearted struggle to not be simply dragged around so he could spare his dignity and not appear like some kind of little puppy that Kagome was taking for a walk.

"Just wait, Inuyasha," she assured him. "We're almost there. It's just passed these trees."

By the time they arrived there, it had begun to get dark. The sun had nearly set, and only a little bit of light had escaped from over the tops of the high mountains. The sight was very beautiful, rivaling the beauty of the field of flowers that Sango and Miroku were enjoying each other's company at while picking flowers. There was a soft, rushing stream that made a peaceful rolling of water that would calm even the most evil and hating youkai, but for those who were caring and loving such as Inuyasha and Kagome, the sight was awe-inspiring. An absolutely glamorous site.

Fire flies flew up from every direction, and as they approached the rocky shores of the river, it seemed that a whole rush of them just flew up from the ground, creating a beautiful effect, almost like a wonderful dream. Also, the wind blew gently a soothing, cool air from over the water with the slight smell of night air and fish, as well as the smell of trees and dirt from the other side. It was absolutely wonderful.

"Ahh," Inuyasha began in awe. "This place is great," he said to Kagome. She, too, was drawn in by its magic.

"It's more than I could have imagined for a night like this," she told him in response. "I'm so happy this is such a perfect night," she said, excited. Inuyasha, too, was in a great mood, especially after seeing the grand place. Although he didn't do it too often because he always had to make himself appear tough, he openly smiled with appreciation at how beautiful the place was and how wonderful it was to be with Kagome this night instead of battling youkai.

Sesshoumaru truly was closing in on the location of Naraku's heart. He could tell with an undying feeling that he was finally headed in the right direction, and in no way did he doubt this feeling. He knew that this would have to be the spot.

Jakken knew it, too. After all, he was the one carrying the youki crystals that were given to them by Kagura. It seemed as though she wanted to help them, but she was made by the very person she was helping them defeat, Naraku. Why would she help them defeat her creator, Jakken thought. It's not something that was really all that important, though because no matter her intentions on helping them, she was still helping them, and Sesshoumaru was intent on going his own path no matter what happened.

Rin could almost feel her cue coming again. After being with Sesshoumaru for so long, she could always tell that there was going to be danger up ahead by Sesshoumaru's reactions. This time was no different. "Rin," Sesshoumaru said, and she replied with her usual, "Hai!" already knowing what she had to do. "I will return shortly. Until then, stay her with Ah-Un and keep away from danger." Again, she replied with a simple confirmation. "Hai." With that Sesshoumaru kept on walking, Jakken not far behind.

"Isn't this just magical?" Sango said to Miroku. "What a perfect night. There is an open breeze, a beautiful night sky, and the lovely scent of flowers feeling the air."

"It's certainly a night to remember," Miroku confirmed. "Never have I dreamed of such a better night, and only days before we are to fight Naraku, and this time destroy him for good." Sango looked away and then at the sky.

"Do you really think this will be it?" she asked him. "Do you really believe this will be the last time we will ever have to fight Naraku?" Miroku smiled gently to Sango and stole her attention away from the sky by embracing her in his arms, dropping all but one of the flowers he held in his hand and putting the last one in Sango's hair. She reached up and felt the edges of the flower with her right hand and than used it too to embrace Miroku.

"Don't worry, Sango," he assured her. "I am positive that this will be our last fight. I'm not sure how I know, but something tells me that it is."

"I sure hope you're right," she told him.

Meanwhile, Inuyasha and Kagome had been sitting side by side on the river bank watching fish swim by as they talked together. "Inuyasha," Kagome said to him.

"Huh?"

"What are we going to do once we finally destroy Naraku? I know that I've asked you before, but it seems like now we are getting very close, and this could be our final fight with him. What happens when we defeat him, and…. And…" Kagome put her head down so that her eyes were covered by here hair. She made a few suppressed sounds that distinctly sounded like only one thing…

"Kagome, are you crying?" Inuyasha asked with a good deal of concern. With that, Kagome put her arms around Inuyasha's neck, letting her whole body weight be supported by his strong figure.

"Inuyasha, what will happen to us? What will happen to you and me if we defeat Naraku? Will there be any reason for me to come back here? What if once we kill Naraku, I go back and can never come back her again? What if I'm only allowed to come her so that we can defeat Naraku?" She was very upset all of a sudden and very frightened. She clenched tightly on Inuyasha's Kimono as she continued to embrace him. Tears were running down her face and on to Inuyasha's kimono, which like water on fire, quickly dried up and disappeared.

Inuyasha smiled, not because of anything she had just said or did, but because he could tell that she really cared about him. He put his arms around her and held her tight, and in response Kagome held on to him even tighter and cried even more.

"Don't worry, Kagome," he said to her. "No matter what happens after this, I will find you again, and we will always be together, just like you stayed with me, even when I told you that as long as Kikyou was still alive, I could never forget about her." Inuyasha spoke with compassion and confidence, even though it worried him sometimes as well. He wasn't quite sure how he would do it, but if anything like that were to happen between them, Inuyasha was determined that he would find a way.

Kagome stifled her tears and looked up into Inuyasha's eyes as she used his shoulders to support her weight and push herself up. "Oh, Inuyasha," she said as she let her self fall back into a whole-hearted embrace with Inuyasha.

In the distance, not too far away, Kikyou stood on the very same cliff that Sesshoumaru was overlooking the mountains from peering on the mountains for the signs of where Naraku was hiding. She was determined to find him as well, and at the cost of her own life, she would not let him continue living. However, she knew her life was already set to end soon. She didn't have much time left on this Earth to take Naraku down, and she had to do her best to track him down and defeat him before her end finally came. She realized that the end of things was coming to an end, and despite how much she still hated Inuyasha from memories she could not let go of, deep inside, an old love was still kindling, and for only a moment, she looked up in the sky and saw his face. She blushed and then shook it off.

"No," she said allowed. "It is no longer meant to be. He is meant to be with Kagome now," she told herself. Then she walked away to begin her search for Naraku's heart.

As more time passed, Sesshoumaru could feel himself getting painfully close to Naraku's hideout where he was keeping his heart at. The youki crystal was reacting strongly, and almost all of the youki had become completely drained in it. Jakken knew that it was only a matter of minutes before they would be there, and he had to constantly remind himself that he was going to be safe because Sesshoumaru would do all of the fighting. 'And besides,' he thought to himself. 'Even if Sesshoumaru can't safe me in time, he has tenseiga! He would bring me back from the dead if anything were to happen to me.' Then he started to doubt himself. 'Wouldn't he? He cares for me right?' After contemplating it for a moment, he began to think, 'Well, he did bring me along here with him with no regards for my safety, and he surely doesn't need me to take down that weak youkai, Naraku. Maybe he really doesn't care about me, or maybe he just realizes that he could bring me back to life if I ever died and… Umph!' Jakken, lost in thought again, bumped into the back of Sesshoumaru's leg.

"Jakken," he said, followed by "Yes, Lord Sesshoumaru" from Jakken. "Keep your mind focused on what we are doing. I don't want to have to bring you back to life again," he said with his usual emotionless tone.

Jakken suddenly gave a break big smile and his eyes started to water with joy. "Oh, Sesshoumaru, you do care about me!" He ran up to him and hugged his leg. Sesshoumaru looked down at him with a cold, serious expression. Next thing Jakken knew, he was on the ground with a large, throbbing lump on his head almost completely knocked out. When he came out of it, Sesshoumaru was already far ahead. "Wait for me, Lord Sesshoumaru!" he screamed, running behind him. "I'm coming, too!"

Finally Sesshoumaru and Jakken had come to the part of the mountain where there was a cave in the mountain's edge. "Jakken."

"Yes, Lord Sesshoumaru?"

"Is this where Naraku is hiding his heart?" Sesshoumaru was concentrating his sight up toward the cave in the side of the mountain. Jakken looked down at the crystal he held in his hand.

"I can't believe it! All of the youki in this shard has completely disappeared!"

"Hm, just as I expected," Sesshoumaru said, thinking out loud.

"Hakudoushi," Naraku spoke to him. "Go give them a warm welcoming."

"Yes, I will."

Sesshoumaru's sense suddenly picked up. "Someone's coming," he said. He reached over and grabbed his tokijin out of his sash. Just then, from up above, Hakudoushi appeared before Sesshoumaru.

"Hah, so you're the great Sesshoumaru," he said in false flattery.

"You are not important," Sesshoumaru said coldly. "I don't have time to deal with weak youkai such as yourself. Move out of my way, or I will be forced to cut through you."

"Miroku…"

"What is it Sango?"

"What do you think will happen to Kohaku?" Another sad look came on Sango's face.

"Don't worry, Sango. I won't let anything happen to your brother. We will not let him die."

"Thank, Miroku." She held him close to her. Miroku, being who he was, could not help but reach down and feel her butt, but this time, she didn't seem to mind so much. It only bothered her when she wasn't in the mood, but right now, she was so taken in by the moment and the beauty of everything around her, she didn't mind much.

Eventually, their lips found each other. At first it was a sweet, gentle kiss. There first kiss. The moment had to be tender and beautiful just like it was now. It was perfect, and each of them was deeply drawn in by the moment. They looked into each other's eyes, and slowly they leaned forward again and touched lips again. Each time they would kiss again, it would become more and more passionate, until they found themselves in a very romantic position, with Miroku laying on the ground and Sango laying on top of him, while they held each other.

At the same time, Inuyasha and Kagome were also having a good time. After holding each other for a while and Kagome laying on Inuyasha's lap, Kagome's stomach had told her that she was getting pretty hungry. So she asked Inuyasha to get her some food, since her bag was left quite some ways away and she only brought matches with her and a pack of gum.

So Inuyasha jumped in the lake and started trying to catch some fish. Every time a decent sized fish would come along, Inuyasha would crouch down and pounce at it. He was always really good at fighting, but catching fish didn't seem to be his forte. He splashed in the water again and fell right on his butt. Kagome found the whole thing very amusing to watch, and he almost reminded her of a real dog. Of course Inuyasha had to say something about it making it seem like it irritated him, but he was really just happy to see her so happy, especially after how worried she had seemed just earlier.

She decided to show some sympathy for him and help him get some fish. So the both of them stood in the water on opposite banks to close in any where the fish could go in the small river, but time after time they just fell in the water and would laugh.

Finally after several attempts, they managed to catch a huge fish together. Then Kagome was going to start a fire, but her matches got all wet. 'Oh well,' she thought. 'I guess I'll just have to do things the old fashioned way.' So she grabbed two stones and some dried up leaves and made a fire. After eating the fish together, the sat by the fire and held each other with one arm and even fell asleep next to each other and letting the fire burn itself out in the middle of the night.

Sango and Miroku ended up going back to the camp they made, where they found that nobody had returned to yet, not even Shippou and Kirara who were still out training, but they didn't mind. They still liked to have alone time.

Speaking of which, Shippou and Kirara had been playing and training the whole time. They found a large hill away from the mountains and the camp completely. It wasn't too far off, but it was still far enough. It was just a large hill with a bunch of grass and a large tree with some other greenery around. It seemed kind of out of place, but still a very nice place to train.

They decided to take turns trying out their abilities and eventually turned it into a kind of game where each person would try to outdo each other, and then turned it into a game where they would use one of their attacks and the other person had to practice dodging it. They may have been training, but that didn't mean that they couldn't still have fun, they both thought. And they were.

After that, they played again of blind tag, where they closed their eyes and relied on their other senses to find each other. Kirara seemed to be a lot better at it than Shippou, but Shippou used some of his fox magic to help even out the odds. And finally, after a long day of training and playing, they decided to just sit and watch the stars to see what kind of shapes they could make out of them, but eventually, they grew so worn out that they both fell asleep on the hill.

Hakudoushi had a smug look on his face. He had an undying confidence on his face that he was going to be the one to win this fight, but as usual, Sesshoumaru was not effected by this in the least.

"Go ahead and try me," Hakudoushi taunted.

"You're a fool," Sesshoumaru said as he raised his tokijin slightly readying to attack. It suddenly became very apparent to Sesshoumaru that his sword wasn't going to have any affect on Hakudoushi and that he wouldn't be able to use his attacks. Somehow, his swords youki was being neutralized.

"You see now?" said Hakudoushi. "Your weapons are useless against me."

"Ridiculous," Jakken said, stepping in. "Sesshoumaru's tokijin shall tear you apart." During this, Sesshoumaru's expression had not changed at all.

"What he says is true," Sesshoumaru told Jakken, putting away tokijin. "Something here keeps my sword from working. And my own youki seems to be no good here either."

"What? But Lord Sesshoumaru…" However, Jakken was interrupted.

"Jakken, go find the source of this in that cave and destroy it," he told him. Then he directed his attention toward Hakudoushi. "As for you, I don't need my youki to destroy the likes of you." Jakken went off on his way to the cave.

Sesshoumaru darted straight for Hakudoushi from ground level to match his altitude as he hovered in the air. He began swinging punches and kicks as well as slashing his claws through the air at Hakudoushi, but to no avail. Hakudoushi effortlessly dodged all of his blows with little effort. "Now my turn." Hakudoushi swung his weapon toward Sesshoumaru which caused a yellow energy (youki) to come off the end of it. Sesshoumaru blocked it with his arm and deflected it.

"It seems you have some trick to negate these youki draining effects," he said to him.

Naraku's began to worry. He had never expected for Sesshoumaru to send Jakken out to destroy the heart, but there wasn't much Hakudoushi could do since he would surely be destroyed and need time to heal himself back to new if he turned his back on Sesshoumaru to protect the heart. He had to send for Kohaku.

Meanwhile, Kohaku was sitting on a nearby side of the mountain when one of Naraku's insects had come for him. "Huh? You want me to follow you and protect the heart?"

Jakken quickly made his way up the side of the mountain. He was having difficulty just keeping his grip on the steep edge of the mountain. He thought that he would never make it. 'Just keep moving,' he thought to himself. 'You must do this for Sesshoumaru.' Then, he saw a figure go into the cave. It almost looked like a young boy in armor. However, it caused him to be distracted enough that he lost his grip and fell.

"Useless," Sesshoumaru said allowed. Jakken felt a little hurt by his harsh words, but he had to keep going, he quickly started going up the cliff again, faster than the first time.

Sesshoumaru continued to battle Hakudoushi. Neither of them seemed to be able to land a single blow, and without his youki, Sesshoumaru seemed to be having more difficulty than he thought he felt he should which began to frustrate him a little. He kept his calm composure though.

'How can he keep his youki in this place where it is draining all of this Sesshoumaru's youki? Surely I am greater than him, but he is using some trick to be unaffected by it.' Then he noticed something odd. 'Each time I have seen Naraku fight, he only used his barrier when he was attacked and didn't keep it up all the time. This kid is the same as Naraku, yet he keeps his barrier up constantly. Perhaps that barrier is what keeps his youki from draining.' Sesshoumaru's eyes slowly moved from Hakudoushi to tenseiga, which as though it had just read Sesshoumaru's mind began to pulsate. 'This blade that my father gave me seems to be not quite as useless as I thought it was after all.' With that, he pulled it out of its sheath, and almost like magic, it acted on its own, rotating so that the point was directed upward, and it suddenly stopped right in front of Sesshoumaru, floating in the middle of the air and produced a blue barrier completely surrounding Sesshoumaru.

"I see you figured it out," said Hakudoushi to Sesshoumaru. "But you will still never be able to defeat me as long as my heart is still in healthy condition." Sesshoumaru gave a cold stare to Hakudoushi as he always did to everyone he would gaze at. He drew his tokijin which regained its youki inside the barrier, and Sesshoumaru, too, replenished his own youki.

"Then you and Naraku are more like each other than I first thought. I will insure your death and offer you no escape." Sesshoumaru lifted his sword above his head and began to charge it with Youki.

Jakken quickly made his way up the rest of the hill. Gasping for air, he got to his feat and prepared to destroy the heart, but just as he got there, he was able to witness Kohaku betraying Naraku and slicing through the heart.

'My heart!' Hakudoushi's eyes filled with a great fear and no longer had any trace of the huge confidence he had not but a few moments ago. 'Now I am surely going to die.' He could tell that there was no escaping his death.

Naraku, too, could feel that his heart was now gone, and there was no escaping his death if he were not to be careful in fighting against his opponents. He would now have to destroy them very soon or he might be destroyed himself. 'Kohaku,' he spoke to him through his mind. 'You betrayed me.'

The shard Naraku had put in Kohaku's back suddenly began to be controlled and looked almost like it was moving on its own. The shard came out of his back with a bunch of blood, and flew out of the cave to where someone could only assume was Naraku.

As for Kohaku, with the shard no longer in his back and his weapon still in Naraku's heart, he fell to the ground and didn't move any more. Kanna, despite Jakken's efforts to kill her with his two-heads staff was also able to slip away. However, unfortunately for Hakudoushi, he was seconds away from dying.

Sesshoumaru summoned his swords strongest attack, which he thought of as overkill for someone not worthy to be his opponent. "Ougi! Souryuuha!" A twisting energy of blue light came out of his tokijin and headed straight for Hakudoushi in a twister of four pillars of youki. Hakudoushi's presence after that was completely erased.

And as for everyone else still fast asleep, they had no idea what had just taken place.

Author's notes: Well, this is obviously my longest chapter so far. It takes up 10 pages on MWord, and I'm still writing the Author's Notes. So I hope I didn't overdo it, but when I review it to write my next chapter, I will know if I wrote too much or if I feel that I can still write more in each chapter before I would lose the readers undivided attention.

Tell me what you think. Is it too long, too short, just right (not a child's story here about bears and a little girl, lol.)? Oh, I almost forgot some chapter notes:

-Ougi: Ougi is a Japanese word meaning Final attack or strongest attack, possibly better translated to finishing move. It is specifically such an attack for a weapon, and I've never seen it being used to describe a person's own killing moves or whatnot in any anime I've seen.

Sesshoumaru says this in the third movie when he introduces the Souryuuha (also known as dragon strike). And for those of you who have seen the same Japanese translation as I have, you should understand this fairly well. It's often translated as "Behold" in English translations, even in the most recent game, which I was bummed to find that you can't put it on Japanese voices, but I'm quite certain that is what he says in the Japanese version since it matches the anime.

Also, I wanted to make a quick note to all the perverts out there. Although the position that Miroku and Sango got in after having some good quality time together and sharing their first kiss was rather sexually suggestive, I did not intend in anyway to make it seem as though they were going to have intercourse, and I would be happy to inform you that they were just being romantic. So stfu.

Thanks everyone for reading this far and I hope you continue reading. I know that there have already been 14 people to read through my third chapter which was just posted very late last night in the early AM. And that makes me happy that my work is interesting enough to continue reading. Please leave reviews. I like to know my readers a little better and it's an awesome confidence boost. And Shainingu, keep reviewing too. This Sesshoumaru appreciates it. Also, I'm going to introduce to you something new that I'm going to start doing, making it seem even more like the show other than that part in the introduction/author's notes that I do "Now time for Inuyasha" and the introduction of the chapter and name of the chapter, there of….

(Holy cow. . Like over a page of Author notes.)

Next chapter preview:

Kagome's voice:

"On the next chapter of Inuyasha…

"Naraku's heart has finally been destroyed by Kohaku. Wait! Oh no! Kohaku! Kohaku, are you okay?

"Also, whatever happened to Kagura, anyway?

"Join us for another exciting chapter of The Legacy of the Inu No Taishou!"


	5. Kouga and Kagura, Fight to the Death

Author's Notes: So far, still only one person reviewed, but I'm steadily gaining more hits as I write, and hopefully by this point you should at least leave a small review of what you thought of it since you've taken the time to read through all 4 chapters I've posted, 12000 words, and are now continuing to read my 5th chapter. It would only be the polite thing to do. Thanks again to Shainingu. And all of you can thank her, too. Because of her dedicated reading, I've decided to write this next chapter tonight. Btw, the next chapter of her fic is up, and it holds up to the greatness of the first one.

Get to know the author: I thought I would let everyone know a little bit more about me that you couldn't have already gathered from my bio and elsewhere. I am 17, I have long hair, never had a girlfriend, and still debating whether or not I even care. Anime makes up a good deal of my life, and especially Inuyasha.

Inuyasha is and has been my favorite anime since I started reading the first couple manga and saw it on C/N. It was the first series I got into after Ranma ½, created by the same author, Rumiko Takahashi.

My friend and I call each other by Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru. If you ask us, we will tell you that we are them, and if you don't believe us, we'll just kill you. One day I hope to finally gain my long silver hair, but until then, it's only about shoulder length.

I really loved later on in the series when it started getting more involved in the story how Sesshoumaru would every so often glare at Jakken, and the next thing you saw him knocked out on the floor with a lump on his eyes and swirly eyes, and Sesshoumaru would just walk off without him. Of course I had to add this in my fict.

Additional Notes: I apologize if this one is a little shorter than the rest of them. I really liked the 10 page chapters, and I felt as though I still have some more room to expand if I want, but I just feel like I need to pay some attention to Kouga in this chapter, which might make it a little shorter than I should hope for in a chapter. I'll do my best though.

And now, it's time for Inuyasha! –Cue intro music-

Chapter 5: Kouga and Kagura, Fight to The Death.

Kagura has been planning to betray and kill Naraku for a long time now. However, Naraku has known about this for a long time and continued to manipulate him for all of his plans, but Naraku had finally manipulated her one last time to use her in his plans, and now he has no use for her. She only has the choice to fight for her life or be killed, when who should show up, but Kouga. Does Naraku have a final plan for Kagura?

Kouga's senses began picking up. There was no mistaken it, he could smell Naraku all over in the air, and he was approaching them fast. He could also smell the not-so-distinct smell of Kagura. It smelled just the same as Naraku to normal youkai, but since Kouga was a wolf youkai, he could tell a slight distinction. "Heh, I'm coming Naraku."

Behind him, as usual, came his two companions, yelling for Kouga to slow down and wait and gasping for breath. "Wait up!"

"Come on Kouga, wait for us!"

"Slow down!" they called.

"No can do, guys. I smell Naraku, and I have to hurry up and catch up to him before he gets away again." Instead of going slower like they were screaming for him to do, he simply sped up and went even faster. The two just took a quick look at each other with an expression that said, "Yeah right" observing that there was no way they could keep up, and then they both desperately began running to keep up the best they could, even though they would fall far back behind like usual.

Naraku had caught wind of Kouga coming toward him from one of his Saimyoushou (his insects) and had quickly devised another one of his clever plans. He looked deviously at Kagura, which gave her an uneasy feeling and made her go on guard a little bit. "I will make you a deal," he told her. "I've been informed that Kouga is coming this way. I want you to fight him for me." An evil grin came across his face.

"Why should I help you, Naraku?" she said now being very defensive.

Suddenly, in Naraku's hand, appeared Kagura's heart. It pulsated and throbbed in Naraku's hand. He let out a small menacing laugh and gave it a slight squeeze giving Kagura pain that was the equivalent to a heart attack causing her to clench her chest where her heart should be.

"If you fight and kill Kouga, I will grant you your wish and give you your heart back and your freedom. However, if you fail to kill Kouga, you will not be allowed to live, and I will kill you." A smirk came on Kagura's face.

"You certainly are a crafty one," she said to him. "This will be no problem." She didn't really want to just follow in Naraku's plans again, and she definitely didn't trust him to keep his word, but she had a better chance of living longer if she just obeyed for now and took more drastic measures later when she could risk it.

At that moment, Kouga appeared before Kagura and Naraku. "So I finally found you, Naraku. I will make you pay for what you did to my comrades!" Naraku just laughed at him. Don't be foolish, your opponent isn't me this time. Your opponent is Kagura. This was his cue to Kagura to step in and fight Kouga as he flew back and observed from a close perspective, confident enough that Kouga wouldn't even be able to get passed Kagura, but was he underestimating the wolf youkai?

Inuyasha had awoken from a long, well-deserved sleep. He found that Kagome had fallen asleep next to him and had begun using him as a pillow sometime during the night. He shook her awake so that they could get back to camp and then start looking for Naraku again as soon as possible.

Kagome woke in a daze. Last night had been very exciting for her and she had so much fun, she almost didn't even feel like getting up to go search for Naraku again, but eventually she did and got to her feet. "Let's head back," Inuyasha said to her, and she nodded in agreement.

They came back to the camp to find that Miroku and Sango had already woken up and prepared everything at the camp so that they could leave as soon as everyone was there. During the early morning, Shippou and Kirara had come back to. "Is everyone ready?" Miroku asked. Everyone was. So they took off to find Naraku's heart and the cave. However, what they didn't know is that Naraku's heart had already been destroyed, and that Kohaku was laying on the ground, lifeless, inside the cave.

The battle between Kouga and Kagura started off fast. Of course, any fight with Kouga was going to be fast since his speed was practically unmatched by any other youkai. Kagura waved her fan and began a strong breeze going in the direction of Kouga to help slow down his movements and to speed up her wind based attacks. Kouga caught on quickly, but there seemed nothing he could do about this disadvantage. "Enough of your cheap tricks," he said as he charged at her.

He made the first attack, jumping up in the air and striking feet first into the ground where Kagura was standing right before she moved out of the way to avoid the strike. She retaliated by sending crescent shaped wind blades at Kouga at an accelerated rate at Kouga. Kouga quickly moved out of the way of each of them and dodged them seemingly without effort.

Kagura wasn't so easily impressed. Her abilities were limitless with the manipulation of the wind and she intended to use that to her full advantage. She pulled out one of her feathers and flew up in the sky where it would be harder for the land-based wolf youkai to reach and where she could effortlessly command the wind at the same time. Things were looking bad for Kouga.

Kagura used her Dance of the Dragon technique on Kouga, which he had to quickly dodge to avoid, and then she followed up with more crescent blades of wind which sliced into the ground all around Kouga as he quickly moved out of the way to dodge them.

"I'm really getting tired of you games," Kouga said out loud. Putting his entire weight to the ground and then pushing off as hard as he could, he flew at an amazing rate at Kagura. At first she didn't think she would be able to move out of the way, even with the strong wind currents slowing him down, but she managed to dodge his strike path by moving up and out of the way.

Kouga flew right passed her and up above her, but now he was on the other side of her, and the wind was on his side blowing against her. While still in the air, he directed another attack using his youki, the air current, and gravity to pull himself very quickly in the direction of Kagura to deliver a strong blow to her.

As she turned around to look at her opponent, she barely caught a glimpse of his attack shortly before he landed it, and she was just barely able to move out of the way, but because of how short of time she had to react she could just barely avoid the punch, causing her to fall off of her leaf headed straight for the ground.

However, she was Kagura of the wind. So she manipulated the wind once more to cause her to land slowly and gracefully touching the ground and regaining her composure.

Inuyasha and the others were headed in the direction of the cave where a great battle had just taken place the night before between Sesshoumaru and Hakudoushi. There was the scent of blood in the air. It was human blood, and Inuyasha knew distinctly whose blood it was. Kirara knew, too.

"What is it, Kirara?" Sango asked her. Inuyasha knew.

"She can sense Kohaku near by," he explained.

"Kohaku?" Kagome said in shock. "It can't be, I don't sense any shards around her."

"There's no mistakin' it," Inuyasha explained. "It's definitely his blood I smell."

Sango looked as though she were about to break down. Tears began to swell up in her eyes, tarnishing her beautiful blue eye liner she so often wore, and nobody knew how to comfort her. She quickly jumped on Kirara's back and went off on her own in the direction that Kirara led her.

"Sango, wait!" Miroku called after her, but with no avail, she wasn't going to turn back or wait for them. She had to reach Kohaku. She couldn't accept that he was dead. "Sango," he said to himself compassionately.

"What are you waiting around for, Miroku?" Inuyasha said. "Let's go!" He gave him a warming smile to try and assure him that everything would be alright, but if Kohaku was really dead, everything wouldn't be alright, especially after the promise that Miroku made to Sango last night that he wouldn't let anything happen to Kohaku. Sango would be absolutely crushed.

"You're right, Inuyasha," he replied. "Let's go!" Miroku took off with Inuyasha, who had Kagome and Shippou on his back. Miroku may only be a human, but it's been shown lots of times before that Miroku can fight strong along side Inuyasha and can even run a fast running pace along side Inuyasha and Kirara.

Kirara led Sango directly to the cave. There was no mistaking where the smell of Sango's brother, Kohaku's blood was coming from. Kirara, however, was worried too. Sango jumped off of Kirara and gave her a quick pat on the head for a job well done. Knowing that her job was complete for now, Kirara transformed back to her cute little kitty form.

Standing from the entrance of the cave, Sango could see her little brother lying on the ground with a distinct whole in his back, surrounded by blood where the shikon shard that was keeping him alive clearly used to be and now was not. Suddenly, Sango was overtaken with extreme sadness. She broke down in tears and fell to the ground kneeling at the side of her motionless brother.

Not too far behind came Inuyasha and everyone else who noticed the body lying on the ground and Sango crying over it. 'Oh no, Kohaku,' thought Kagome. Nobody knew exactly how to feel, except Sango, who was completely overtaken by grief for her younger brother who now was on the ground, lying face down on the ground without any movement whatsoever.

Her morning eventually became stronger, and she threw herself onto Kohaku's body, not worrying if any of his blood were to get on her. Tears ran down her cheeks and landed on the exposed left cheek of Kohaku which showed itself because his face was facing slightly to the left. From the look of it, Kohaku was crying, too, but it was just her own tears falling on his face, Sango thought.

However, after minutes passed of Sango morning and everyone else morning with her, Kohaku's body made a noise. Some sort of grunt or a moan. And then, his leg began to move. "Kohaku!" Sango said excitedly. He was still alive! Despite the fact that the shard of the Shikon jewel had been removed from his back, he managed to stay alive on his own after healing up through all this time. It seemed almost unreal.

"Kohaku!" Sango screamed again, as she put her arms around him in a half embrace as to not hurt him because it was obvious that the shard being ripped out of his back, the nervous center of the body, had caused him to be in severe pain that caused him to black out and appear dead.

"Sango, I'm so happy for you!" Miroku said, smiling with tears coming from his eyes.

"Congratulations, Sango," Kagome said, continuing the praise and happiness that her brother turned out to be fine. "We're happy to see you're okay, Kohaku."

"Nee-chan," Kohaku managed to get out. "Nee-chan, I remember!" He smiled the best he could while he was in severe pain, but it only lasted for a second before he had to grind his teeth to bare the pain he was in.

"Kohaku," Sango said passionately as a wide smile and tears formed on her face.

The battle between Kouga and Kagura continued to wage on. Blow after blow, they seemed to continually miss each other and seemed to be a very good match for each other in a fight. "You certainly have improved since the last time, Kouga."

"Heh, I haven't even gotten started," he replied in his cocky manner.

Meanwhile, Naraku still watched in amusement as the two battled it out to the death. It could either be one or the other, and it was too early in the fight to be able to tell who was going to win, but either way, Naraku planned to take them both out in the end. It was a perfect idea to force Kagura to fight Kouga for her freedom so that when there was finally a victor, he or she would be weakened and unable to fend off Naraku's assault.

Kagura figured that she better do something soon. She was beginning to tire out and didn't know how much longer she could continue fighting for. So she had to send a message to Kouga that she wanted his help to take down Naraku, but to do that, she needed to get close, which wasn't her specialty in fighting at all. So before she could even give Kouga her message, he might already have killed her, but it was her only chance, she thought, of saving her life and finally being free.

She finally saw her chance when Kouga flew back from her counter attack and skid on the ground and immediately darted for her. She, also, darted toward him, which seemed to confuse him. She knew of his keen sixth senses. So if she were to begin an attack, he would put his guard up instead of finishing his attack, which is what she did.

She waved her fan up in the air and started to summon the wind, and right on cue, Kouga put his guard up and Kagura took the opportunity, swinger her fan down low as though she were going to bring it back up and strike and got close to Kouga.

"I'm being manipulated by Naraku, and I need your help," she explained. "He is holding my heart, and if I get it back, I can finally be free from his grasps. Will you please help me?" She flew back and flung some air crescents at him, continuing a ballet of attacks and Kouga dodged on cue.

They quickly clashed again. "You're joking, right?" he said in disbelief.

"No, I mean it for real. I've never wanted to follow Naraku's orders in the first place. I am the wind, and I want to be free." And right on cue and with perfect coordination, Kouga threw a kick at Kagura, which she stepped back and dodged.

Once again they clashed to continue their conversation without Naraku expecting that they are actually scheming against his demise. "Listen, you can deal with me later, but right now Naraku is right there, and we have a chance to defeat him. We should take it!"

"Fine," he agreed. "And after that, I'll consider whether or not to kill you."

Another piece of the ballet and another clashing together. "So what do we do next?" Kouga asked her.

"I'll cut off his arm, and you use your speed to retrieve my heart before he can."

With that, Kagura summoned the wind to slice of the hand Naraku held her heart in, and with expert precision, Kouga swooped in and grabbed it.

"I'm impressed," Naraku said with a chuckle. "I expected you two to fight it out until your death, but instead you found a way to work together. Next time, you won't be so lucky." Naraku began to fly away. He wanted to come back and fight when he was sure he had the advantage.

"Not so fast," Kouga said as he came after him and ripped through his mid torso with a powerful punch, surrounded with youki. However, Naraku just released a bunch of Miasma, which defeated any hope of Kouga making another attack on him. "Damn you, Naraku!" he shouted as Naraku made his Narrow escape.

'It seems I have underestimated that wolf youkai.'

Author's notes: Nothing too important to say this time. I just want to remind you that reviews are very much appreciated. I know there are more than just one person out there that have something they could say about it, and if you've read this far, you're obviously interested in it. So why don't you do me the honor of writing a simple review for me, since I diligently wrote this entire chapter for you when I should be sleeping.

Hey, I'm just adding this in. I've been having trouble posting things up lately, and I can't really understand why. It seems like it's only with .rts and .doc. Is anybody else experiencing these problems.

Well, I FINALLY managed to upload this chapter after I decided to try to upload some random readme file and then copy and paste my chapter into it. Please tell me if you know anything.

Get to Know Your Author: Although this fanfict up until this point has not displayed any real content over the Teen (T) rating, I had originally put this fanfict in the rating of Mature(M) as a way to express the freedom I desire when writing my fanfictions.

On the Next Chapter of Inuyasha:

Myouga's voice:

"After Kagura has finally gained her freedom and Kohaku is safely back in the care of Sango and the others, Naraku is running out of places to run. The gang is corning him in. Will this really be the final battle with Naraku?"


	6. Final Battle Begins

Author's Notes: It seems as though I have two new reviewers now. Although I would like to announce your names individually and thank you, my computer is running horribly slow right now because I am in the middle of downloading Naruto eps, but I'll be sure to get your names up here and thank you more personally next chapter.

Also, sorry for the wait. Most authors don't really write as much as I do, and few who do, also write as much as I do. I've been having a little trouble at my home. So this chapter's been a little delayed because of it.

Now it's time for Inuyasha!

Chapter 6: The Final Battle Begins

"We've been searching for Naraku for a long time now," Kagome narrates. "What started as a hunt for the shards of the Shikon no Tama, turned into an ongoing battle with Naraku. He has been collecting the shards for himself so that he can use them, and so far he has collected all of the shards, but two, including one that was located between this world and the next.

"Along our journey, we ended up meeting some friends, who for one reason or another joined us in our search for destroying Naraku. Sango joined us to avenge her family and also to get back her little brother whom Naraku had been manipulating for his schemes. However, he managed to live through having the shard taken out of his back. It seems as though he has healed while the shard was in his back to the point he didn't need it anymore.

"Miroku, along with his lecherous personality, inherited a curse from his father that was placed on his family by Naraku. Although it has been his greatest weapon, it has also been his greatest fear. It gets bigger and bigger until one day it finally sucks him in like it did his father.

"Even Inuyasha has a reason to kill Naraku. A long time ago, 50 years before I met Inuyasha, Naraku tricked him and Kikyou into betraying each other. Ever since, Inuyasha has been continuously pursuing her, and sometimes it is really hard to tell whether or not he really cares about me since he is so obsessed with Kikyou all the time.

"Shippou and I are the only ones who don't have our own reasons for vengeance. Although we have been there throughout every battle Inuyasha has had with Naraku, we have nothing to take revenge for on Naraku. However, I will keep on fighting along side my friends, and I will take vengeance for everybody else that Naraku has hurt. For my friends and everyone hurt by Naraku's evil schemes, I will continue on and fight!"

"Huh? Did you say something Kagome?" Inuyasha said turning around with a confused look on his face.

"Uh, no. It must be your imagination," she replied with a slightly embarrassed look on her face.

"Let's keep on going then," he said to her.

Then, something came from over the mountain tops not too far away. "Naraku!" Inuyasha shouted with a growl. "Common!" They hurried along, chasing after Naraku in the direction he was headed. Kouga and Sesshoumaru were headed after him too, having seen him come over the mountains as well.

At this rate, instead of being at an advantage, Naraku was going to be at a complete disadvantage.

Kagura, finally having a strong ally, decided that she would continue to assist Kouga by letting him fly with her on her feather after Naraku. At the same time, Sesshoumaru was flying after Naraku in the same direction. Eventually, their paths met.

'It's him again,' Sesshoumaru thought, approaching Kouga and Kagura whom were flying together on Kagura's feather. 'Isn't that woman that incarnation of Naraku who was going to betray him? Perhaps she has finally broken free from Naraku. This means that Naraku doesn't have any more minions to use as shields. And now that his heart is gone, he will die for sure.' Sesshoumaru began to speed up in excitement of catching up with and finally killing Naraku.

"It's you again!" Kouga shouted as he saw Sesshoumaru approaching. "Are you going after Naraku as well?"

"Don't get in my way," he said as he drew out his sword and slashed at Kouga, which released a half circle of yellow energy. Sesshoumaru flew on, as Kagura took evasive action and moved out of the way of the attack.

"You wanna play dirty do you?" Kagura said, mostly to herself. "Let's play dirty then." With a wave of her fan, they sped up, matching Sesshoumaru's speed. Sesshoumaru was obviously annoyed. He didn't like to have annoying challenges while he was in the middle of accomplishing another goal.

"Go away if you want to live," he told her.

Inuyasha and the others were also beginning to close in. However, they were on the other side of the mountain, closing in from the other side. They could still see Naraku. He appeared to be trying to get far away, as though he were afraid that someone would attack him. "Heh, he must be losing his confidence," Inuyasha observed out loud for the other to hear. "He's running away with his tail between his legs."

"Yes, that's the way it seems," Miroku agreed. "It seems as though what Kohaku told us was true. Naraku's heart has finally been destroyed."

"I hope he will be okay until we get back," Sango said with a sigh. "He seems pretty badly injured."

"Don't worry," Miroku assured her. "My barrier I set up definitely won't be broken by any of the youkai around here. I haven't sensed anything strong enough to break it, except Naraku, and he's heading the other way."

Sesshoumaru slashed at Kagura again, trying to make her fall so that she wouldn't bother him. In doing so, he also sped up again. He was determined to get to Naraku first, and he wouldn't even think that his half-breed brother would have even noticed Naraku coming over the hills. He of course didn't know that Inuyasha was actually on Naraku's trail as well.

"Attack at me, will you?" She said coming back on a steady course after dodging Sesshoumaru's attack. She raised her fan up again and commanded three crescents to fly at Sesshoumaru. However, Sesshoumaru found no difficulty in dodging the attacks and even managed to keep a steady course while doing so.

"Don't underestimate this Sesshoumaru," he said to her. "I won't be defeated with such feeble attacks." Without even looking, Sesshoumaru turned his blade toward Kagura again and shot blades of blue energy at Kagura, the same way that he had when fighting Inuyasha transformed for the first time.

Finally Kagura had lost it and had fallen off of her feather, which transformed back to normal size. Kouga and Kagura went falling toward the ground. Of course, Kagura had no fear, she simply commanded the wind to slow her to a stop on the ground. Kouga however, had no such luck. He didn't have any kind of power dealing with the wind. All of his strength came from physical attacks and his speed. Neither of those things could help him here.

However, he saw one chance of surviving this uninjured. As he was falling, he could see a tree approaching growing larger by the second. As approached the ground, he had to quickly locate a branch and grab hold which would effectively stop him from being dropped into the ground really hard.

For a while he thought that he wasn't going to be able to locate a branch he could grab onto. All of the branches were either misaligned or too small to have any big effect. Then finally, he saw one and readied himself to grab on. As he finally got close enough to grab it, he reached out to grab it, but he missed it just by a few seconds. 'This is bad,' he thought, but just then he saw another branch and quickly grabbed on.

While nearly breaking the branch right off of the tree, he did a few rotations around to branch, and using the momentum from the fall and rotating around the branch, he let go and started running faster than ever. As usual, a tornado formed around his entire body from his immense speed, this time larger than any time before. "Hey, thanks for the lift!" he shouted to her, as he sped off.

"Hey! Where the Hell are you going?" she yelled after him. Before she could even get it out, he was gone. It seemed like she would be traveling alone from now on.

They had all traveled really far by this point. They could tell just by how far they had gone that Naraku would soon find a place to land. As though they had control over it with their minds, Naraku had just then began to descend into a rocky pit where he could have the most advantage. He had already caught on to the fact that he was being followed. And since there was so many of them, it would become hard for them to attack him without attacking each other. They would become each other's opponents and eventually start fighting each other more than they were actually fighting him, and they would all be weakening each other. This was Naraku's last chance to come out victorious.

Sesshoumaru would be the first to reach him. Although Kouga was fast, he couldn't outdo Sesshoumaru's speed, especially when Sesshoumaru had the advantage of flight, which eliminated tediously climbing up and down hills and canyon walls.

The battle began as soon as Sesshoumaru arrived. Without time to even look to see where Naraku was, Naraku's assault had begun. He shot a tentacle at Sesshoumaru, which Sesshoumaru easily dodged, by stepping to the side; however, Naraku had already anticipated that happening. So he swung it at Sesshoumaru, attempting to throw him into one of the canyon walls, but Sesshoumaru was too quick and witty to have something so simple cause him any bit of trouble. Sesshoumaru just pulled out Tokijin and blasted right through Naraku's tentacle and then sent another blast directly at Naraku, which Naraku blocked with his barrier.

"Did you forget?" Naraku said arrogantly. "You cannot penetrate my barrier. And if you can't break through my barrier, there is nothing you can do to hurt me."

"Don't take this Sesshoumaru so lightly. I may not have broken through your barrier the first time you used it, but there is no way I would lose to an inferior youkai." Having said that, Sesshoumaru immediately began his next attack. If his kenatsu was not enough to break Naraku's barrier, then perhaps Souryuuha was. Sesshoumaru charged the tokijin with his youki. "Ougi, Souryuuha!" Blue energy that appeared in the shape of lightning now surrounded Sesshoumaru completely. "Die!" With the command of his sword, he sent the energy directly at Naraku.

The same cockiness that Naraku had before was quickly starting to deplete. He didn't know if he had enough strength to repel it. The blast hit Naraku's barrier, and for a moment it looked like it wasn't going to hold up. However, he couldn't manage to send it back at him. "Heh, amusing trick," Naraku taunted. "I have to admit that it's more than I expected. Unlike Inuyasha's Bakuryuuha, I wasn't able to repel your Souryuuha. However, it will never be enough to defeat me."  
"Don't compare this Sesshoumaru to that half-breed."

Inuyasha and the others could tell they were getting really close to where Naraku had just gone. "Sesshoumaru's already there," Inuyasha told them.

"Sesshoumaru?" Miroku mimicked.

Sesshoumaru prepared for another Souryuuha. He did the same as the last time, charging tokijin with his youki. "I will teach you not to underestimate this Sesshoumaru," he said as lightning began to once again circle around him. However, this time he did something different. While the energy was still surrounding Sesshoumaru, he placed his blade up, facing the point toward Naraku, and charged him.

The lightning circled Sesshoumaru in weird patterns as it connected back to the sword every now and then and continued to engulf Sesshoumaru with lightning. 'What's he up to?' Naraku thought.

As Sesshoumaru got within the last couple of feet of Naraku, he drew his blade back and thrust in into Naraku's barrier. There was a sound of clashing powers at war with each other. A battle between the tokijin's energy and the energy of Naraku's barrier. "Souryuuha!" The energy surrounding Sesshoumaru exploded through the blade and blasted Naraku's barrier head on.

'What an incredible power,' Naraku thought as he fended it off. However, Naraku eventually managed to repel the energy and with a bright flash, it dissipated. "Useless," Naraku said. However, as his vision came back, he observed that Sesshoumaru was able to break through the barrier himself with the added force of his Souryuuha. Sesshoumaru's arm was ripping right through the barrier, and had just barely caught Naraku short of a fatal blow. And after taking such a blow, Naraku's barrier was no longer able to stand. However, the battle was just beginning. "I underestimated you, Sesshoumaru, but you'll have to do much better to defeat me."

"Aren't you forgetting about someone?" a familiar voice called, that was starting to become rather annoying to Sesshoumaru. The voice belonged to no other than Kouga. "Thought you could hog all the fun, did you, Sesshoumaru. I have a score to settle with you for making me nearly plummet fifty feet to the ground, but first…" He directed his attention toward Naraku. "I'm going to take care of you, Naraku."

Sesshoumaru didn't seem very pleased by recent events. He had gained an ally, but he seemed more upset by it then happy. "Don't get in my way," he said as he sliced the canyon walls above Kouga, causing an avalanche that Kouga had to tediously avoid. However, since Naraku was so far down, he could easily predict the fall of the rocks and move out of the way. "I will take care of Naraku myself."

Sesshoumaru rose his blade again readying another Souryuuha, and right after he released it and sent it at Naraku, Kouga had his revenge on Sesshoumaru for his underhanded tactics by kicking him in the back. Immediately after, he went after Naraku who didn't dare to try and resist Sesshoumaru's attack with another barrier and had just dodged the Souryuuha. He used the momentum of his fall and swung a spinning kick at Naraku, which was charged with youki. Naraku found it easy to dodge, and Kouga attacked again by rebounding off the wall.

"Stay out of my fight," Sesshoumaru threatened, as he sent another attack in the direction of Kouga, causing the place Kouga had just left to crumble.

Kouga's next attack hit Naraku, but Naraku just took in the blow like it was nothing. Although it was charged with lots of youki, the attack could still only cause a small cut. Now it was Naraku's turn to attack. Naraku teleported behind Kouga and stabbed him through his stomach. Immediately after, he teleported over to Sesshoumaru, who was always a little more aware of what was going. However, it was too late. When Naraku teleported, he was already in the middle of a kick, leaving barely enough time for Sesshoumaru to realize what was going on and partially move out of the way before the kick knocked him back into the side of the canyon.

"Not bad for someone who never does any of his own work," taunted another familiar voice. This time it was Inuyasha. He had decided to go on ahead of everyone else since he was faster, but he didn't waste anytime making a big entrance. Right as he had said that he was falling toward Naraku at an amazing rate. "Koun Gou Sou Ha!" he called out as he was almost to Naraku. He swung his blade downward and released spikes of diamond that pierced through Naraku and a shield he put up to guard himself. Immediately after, as he was still falling, he sent a kaze no kizu at Naraku who now had no shield.

Inuyasha had landed the first blow on Naraku, and Naraku was not pleased. The battle was becoming slightly more difficult for him by the second and he really was starting to worry whether or not he was going to be able to beat all of them, especially at one time.

Sesshoumaru was quick to recover from the attack Naraku had done on him. It was nothing more than some scrapes and bruises from being slammed into the wall. He was only winded for a second and then was quick to follow-up Inuyasha's attack with his own, sending a blue orb of energy at Naraku, which Naraku managed to dodge. However, Sesshoumaru hadn't expected it to hit, instead, he quickly darted toward Naraku, using the walls to push off and go faster from one side to the next, and he used his Dokacho to pierce through Naraku's side, which sent miasma everywhere. Sesshoumaru quickly retreated into a ready stance.

Naraku had already taken quite a beating, and there were still more on the way that he had to battle, he had to form some sort of plan to defeat them, but it kept getting harder. He had already taken more attacks than he had delivered to any one of them, and was now starting to feel the effects of it, as well as a real fear that he might be defeated.

Kouga had finally recovered from the hit he took. Although he had been pierced through the stomach, it didn't go in too far, so the whole wasn't very big. To him, it was no more than being barely cut by a sword. He retaliated by making a swing at Naraku. Naraku moved out of the way, and the rocks where he hit fell down in a small avalanche, which Naraku also had to dodge. Then he quickly spun off of the wall and did a dragon kick at Naraku.

Immediately after, Naraku found himself dodging barrage of attacks, executed in a seemingly flawless order, including Inuyasha's kaze no kizu, Sesshoumaru's kenatsu, and even now Kagura's wind attack as she arrived to the fight and not too long after was joined by everyone else as well who were throwing their own attacks at Naraku.

Now his advantage had finally began to set in. Everyone was there, and now it would be hard to coordinate attacks. He knew that Sesshoumaru didn't care about hurting any one of them. So he had to pay just as much detail to Sesshoumaru as before. Kagura could care almost equally as little, but she would still try to avoid attacking Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha and Kouga, at least until he was dead. So he could ignore her a little bit more. Kouga would try and avoid hurting anyone of Inuyasha's companions, but he wouldn't hesitate to hurt Inuyasha if he got in the way, and Inuyasha and his companions wouldn't hurt each other, nor would Kagome hurt Kouga if he got in the way.

Regardless of this disadvantage that Naraku had cleverly set up, the barrage of attacks continued. Kagome shot off a purification arrow, which Naraku had to make sure he dodge for certain, and then Sesshoumaru sent off Kenatsu again, both of which Naraku managed to dodge. The blue energy orb smashed into the wall behind Naraku, causing Sango to have to quickly move out of the way, as she threw her haraikotsu, and Kagome's purification arrow nearly caught Inuyasha on the shoulder, but he moved out of the way, as it singed his fire-rat kimono. "Watch where you're shooting Kagome!" Inuyasha shouted.

"Sorry, but we just don't…" Before she could finish, Naraku struck the side of the canyon, 'causing rocks to fall down over her and Miroku. Inuyasha quickly jumped over and sliced through the rocks, but it gave Naraku a perfect opportunity to strike Inuyasha.

Inuyasha found himself falling and hitting a ledge. "Damn, he's strong. We have to find a way to beat him."

"Haraikotsu!" Sango shouted out as she through her weapon again. Miroku aided in her attack too, throwing his charms at Naraku. Naraku deflected the haraikotsu and was struck by three of the charms. They burned his flesh and disappeared, but they didn't do any real damage to him, nothing more than a good punch would have done.

Kagura used dance of dragons on Naraku, which got Miroku caught in it, throwing him against the wall and hurting his shoulder. "Miroku!" Sango called out, throwing her haraikotsu at Kagura.

"What are you doing?" she screamed as she blocked it with her wind attacks. "I'm on your side now!" Sango looked a little confused.

"Believe it or not," Kouga said. "Kagura is actually helping us this time."

In the confusion, Sango didn't see Naraku attacking her. His elongated arm tentacle knocked her off of Kirara and into the wall. Kirara retaliated on her own by biting into Naraku's arm, which released miasma. However, Kirara kept holding on.

Kouga quickly took advantage of the situation and landed a high powered punch in Naraku's stomach. Miroku also decided to take advantage of the opportunity to slice off his arm completely with his staff, which caused miasma to spill everywhere.

Naraku was starting to gain another advantage. His miasma was filling up the cavern, making it hard to breath and causing a complete cloak of where he was. There was a few reckless attacks from Kouga and Inuyasha of them confusing each other for Naraku, and Naraku to advantage of the situation by knocking down rocks that even hit Sesshoumaru, even though he guarded against it so that it didn't do anything.

Next, Inuyasha used his kaze no kizu toward what he thought was Naraku. However, Naraku moved out of the way, and now knowing exactly where Inuyasha was inside of his own cloak of miasma stabbed him right through the leg.

'I have to do something,' Kagome thought to herself. 'Maybe I can clear away this miasma by shooting an arrow, but what if I hit someone other than Naraku?' She reached back and grabbed an arrow. 'I have no choice. Please, hit your mark!' She pulled back the string and released the arrow as well aimed toward the top as she could.

Her plan worked. The miasma soon began to clear out, but in light of this, Naraku's next target became her.

Naraku teleported down to where she was at and shot his newly grown tentacle toward her. "Inuyasha!" she screamed in terror as she clenched her bow tight in her hands.

"Kagome!"

Fueled by his desire to save Kagome, Inuyasha's speed seemed to have dramatically increased as he darted off of the canyon walls back and forth to quickly get to Kagome. He managed to go so fast as to get down to where Kagome was and intercept Naraku's attack, which ended up stabbing him in the shoulder.

"Inuyasha!" Inuyasha's companions all shouted in unison. Inuyasha began coughing up blood.

"You alright Kagome?" Inuyasha asked as he turned around and smiled at her.

"Inuyasha, you saved me." She embraced him in her arms.

"Fools," Naraku said as he prepared another attack.

"No you don't!" Miroku yelled at him as he opened the air void.

"Miroku, the Saimyoushou!" Sango called.

Miroku didn't care, he had to save his friends. He kept his kazaana open until he couldn't take it anymore, but to no avail. Naraku hadn't moved an inch. Although he was able to give Inuyasha and Kagome time to collect themselves and saved them from Naraku's attack, Naraku effortlessly held himself back from being absorbed by Miroku's attack.

"Did you really think that you could beat me so easily with the curse that I gave to you?" Naraku said to him arrogantly. He shot out a tentacle toward Miroku, but Sango stepped in and deflected the attack with her haraikotsu.

"Enough of this foolishness," Sesshoumaru said, putting his tokijin away. "You're battle is with me, Naraku." As fast as Naraku himself could teleport, Sesshoumaru flew down to where Naraku was and punched him in the face.

Naraku flew back, and Sesshoumaru flew right behind him and kicked him in the other direction. Naraku flew back, but managed to catch himself in mid air. Then, he had just enough time to dodge Sesshoumaru's next combo of attacks that started with a punch and when into a backwards slash with his claws, a spinning roundhouse kick, another punch and then he reached for tokijin and resolved the combo with kenatsu.

Naraku retaliated by throwing a few attacks back at Sesshoumaru which Sesshoumaru dodged and then struck a punch in Naraku's stomach.

While the others threw an attack every now and then whenever they saw an opening, Naraku and Sesshoumaru took turns throwing blows at each other and dodging each other's attacks. It eventually became so fast, that the only way to be sure who you were going to hit with your attack was by attacking close up.

Soon the battle flared again. Fighters were moving in and out of the action jumping in to take a few strikes and jumping back out to get a nice darting speed at Naraku by using the walls.

Inuyasha came in with a kaze no kizu, and Naraku moved out of the way and then hit Kouga as he came in. Then Sesshoumaru came from behind with a kenatsu, nailing Naraku in the back. Then Sango would come by and slash him with her wakasashi. And the battle continued on in the same manner for quite some time. Blows going back and forth and different fighters taking blows and giving blows. Soon, everyone was warn out and getting tired.

The battle suddenly calmed down again as everyone stopped and rested for a minute ready to join back in fighting at a moments notice. Even Naraku was warn out, and although he kept his strong posture and menacing look, he really was taking quite a beating, and it was finally having quite an effect on him. He didn't know how much longer he could go on.

'There has to be some way I can gain an advantage over them and defeat them.' He looked around to each of their faces, full of anger, hatred, and determination. Everyone's face was the same except for Sesshoumaru. Although he had used up a lot of his energy, especially after using so many Souryuuha in the beginning of the battle, his expression never changed. Cold, emotionless, empty.

Naraku's mind got lost in Sesshoumaru's eyes. 'They are the same as mine,' he thought. 'No. They're different. They're colder, much colder. His expression hasn't changed one bit, while my eyes reveal everything about me, and his eyes reveal nothing about him.'

By this point, Miroku was ready to join back in the battle as well. His hand had absorbed a lot of poison, but it wouldn't matter much if he could finally kill Naraku and himself of the kazaana in his right hand. 'I must go on,' he thought.

Each person had only hatred in their minds. They all had the thoughts of anger and malice for Naraku trapped in their heads, eternally recycling itself and playing over and over again.

'Damn him. I'll make him pay for everything he's done,' thought Inuyasha. 'I will avenge Kikyou. I will get my revenge for tricking me.' He brought his focus to Kagome. 'And most important of all, I will protect everyone!'

'I will get my revenge for my village and for making Kohaku suffer. I won't let him live after everything he has done,' thought Sango as she clutched her wakazashi in one hand and her haraikotsu in the other.

'To avenge my comrades, I will make sure you die,' Kouga thought while he clenched his fists.

'To finally be free from your hands and to permanently sever our ties, I will destroy you.'

'This Sesshoumaru will kill you with his own hands.'

'I am the only one who is here fighting Naraku without vengeance or malice,' thought Kagome. 'I am here fighting Naraku only to defend my friends, to aid them in fulfilling their vengeance. I am the only one who doesn't have a reason to kill Naraku. So my reason will be so that I can avenge those who couldn't live to avenge themselves and to protect the world from Naraku's evil. I will fight to protect my friends and to prove that I am strong!' She reached back and grabbed an arrow out of her quiver. "Naraku! I will kill you to protect those I care about!" The arrow became enchanted with a power deep inside of Kagome that had never been seen before. It was a very powerful miko energy, which made a larger purification arrow than she had ever made. "Die Naraku!"

The arrow flew through the air, straight for Naraku. It moved at such a rate that Naraku had no chance to avoid it, and it pierced right through his body.

'This can't be!' Naraku had to do something fast. 'Of course, I will absorb Kagura again, and she will give me enough youki to revitalize myself back to new!' All the flesh that had originally been removed from Naraku's body came back to life again and instantly engulfed Kagura.

"No you don't!" Inuyasha said as he tried to slice through it, but it had enough flesh that it didn't do much.

Naraku's body managed to come back together just like it was before the battle even began. And now that everyone had already been weakened, he was at a huge advantage now.

Author's notes: Yay! My first real cliff hanger. I decided to make this into a two part battle since it was like THE battle you've been waiting to see for the WHOLE ENTIRE SERIES! And since I really couldn't write for more than two chapters worth (about twenty pages) on just one battle, I think that I will conclude this battle next chapter, unless I get REALLY inspired and continue on to yet another chapter. Just stick around because soon it will be getting to the best part, the part where I start introducing the Inu no Taishou and his awesome legacy into all of this. It will be SO FREAKIN' AWESOME. You'll have to see it.

On the next chapter:

Inuyasha's voice:

"Naraku, you bastard! I'm going to cut you in half!"

Kagome: "Inuyasha!"

Inuyasha: "Whatever, next episode is the exciting conclusion the battle with Naraku. He's finally got his strength back to normal, and now we're all at a disadvantage because we're all worn out. How're we going to get through this one? (cause you know we will)

"Join us for the next exciting chapter of The Legacy of the Inu no Taishou!"


	7. Conclusion to the Final Battle

Author's notes: I started writing this fanfiction immediately after I had finished downloading and watching the anime series. However, it left it off in an awkward place that made it seem as though they were going to make more. However, at the end of the episode, they made it quite clear that they were ending the production of the episodes for one reason or another (or at least it seems).

Shortly after completing the last chapter, I had done a google search and found the manga. As my suspicions detailed, the manga does in fact carry on passed the point where the series left off. However, in the manga, after the series left of, there seems to be quite a lot of notable changes that take place, as you of you probably know. In fact, there were even many that completely contradicted what I had written myself so far.

Therefore, this is going to be the last chapter of this fict. Not only that, this is no longer going to be called "The Legacy of the Inu no Taishou". However, I do plan on rewriting that fict, except for this time assuming what happens to Naraku in a short part of it, which can easily be changed as I read more since it will be so short, explain the things I have read so you know how it got to that point, and jump write in to the good part of this story where the Inu no Taishou finally starts to play a big role.

I'm sorry that it had to be this way for those of you who really wanted me to continue on with this fanfict, I was hoping I wouldn't have to modify this, but I' will make sure that this fict ends as well as it started out, and I hope that you all will read my new Legacy of the Inu no Taishou fict when I start writing it.

Now it's time for Inuyasha!

Chapter 7: Conclusion to the Great Battle with Naraku

Naraku began laughing menacingly. "You see? I cannot be defeated. I will show you not to underestimate me."

It was Naraku's turn to return all of the blows they had landed on him. Now that he was at full strength, he had a big advantage over the group. First, he was going to take revenge on Sesshoumaru. He would be most bothersome since Sesshoumaru always managed to conserve the most energy.

Sesshoumaru was standing with his tokijin out. He was on guard and closely keeping an eye out for Naraku. 'I can't let him win,' he thought. 'Naraku will die by my claws.'

'It appears that this isn't going to be easy,' Naraku thought. 'Even though I've regained my energy, Sesshoumaru will still be a challenge.' Naraku had devised a plan to defeat Sesshoumaru, but he had to time it right, or Sesshoumaru may just defeat him instead.

Something began to twitch and move behind Sesshoumaru. This trick had already been used on him once; he knew what it was already. It was Naraku's flesh. It seemed as though Naraku was going to try and absorb Sesshoumaru again, but Sesshoumaru wasn't going to fall for the same trick twice, he thought.

Naraku's flesh kept twitching and he knew that it would soon try and absorb him, but what was Naraku waiting for? Finally, the flesh sprung off the sides of the wall and all started coming toward Sesshoumaru. Sesshoumaru quickly took his blade and sliced through the flesh, but as he did, Naraku teleported behind him and struck him through his chest.

"Damn you, Naraku," Sesshoumaru screamed as blood trickled from his mouth. Sesshoumaru turned around, slicing through the air at Naraku, but Naraku just teleported out of the way. Then Sesshoumaru was barraged with flesh.

"I can't let you do that!" Inuyasha shouted and used his kaze no kizu. The blast flew through the air and toward Naraku, but Naraku put his barrier back up and blocked it from reaching him.

To this, Naraku shot a tentacle at Inuyasha, causing him to jump, and then shot another tentacle to where he was about to land. Inuyasha landed on a ledge, but as soon as he did, it collapsed underneath him, and he began to fall. 'That will subdue him for a while,' Naraku thought.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome shouted. Sango and Kirara flew down after him.

Naraku continued his assault, ignoring the rest of his opponents. It seemed like he finally had Sesshoumaru in his grasps, and after he absorbed him, he would be unstoppable.

Sesshoumaru began breaking away from the flesh, only to get bombarded with even more flesh. Immediately after, another tentacle pierced through him. He was starting to feel weak and exhausted. He had used too much of his youki and needed time to rest, but the assault continued.

Naraku teleported in front of him, and Sesshoumaru saw his chance. "I won't lose to an inferior youkai," he said to Naraku, and slashed his tokijin straight through the right side of Naraku, severely damaging him.

"You bastard! Stop resisting!" More flesh began piling on Sesshoumaru, completely enveloping him in Naraku's pulsating flesh.

"No you don't, Naraku!" shouted Kagome as she shot an arrow that barely missed Naraku, which burned his flesh anyway from the arrows intensity. Naraku knew it was now or never. He had to absorb Sesshoumaru.

The mound of flesh suddenly flew toward Naraku and started to fuse with his body. "Damn, this isn't good," Kouga thought out loud. In a matter of minutes, Sesshoumaru completely fused with Naraku.

Naraku's attention quickly turned to Kagome. He couldn't risk being hit by one of her purifying arrows. It he was, he might lose both Kagura and Sesshoumaru because they were far from being fully absorbed. If he were to be hit by her arrows and lose the two youkai he absorbed, he would not stand a chance for sure.

Naraku attacked her without hesitation as he teleported down to her and knocked her away, causing her to drop her bow and arrows, which he quickly swept out of her reach. 'Now for the kill,' he thought.

Naraku shot his tentacle toward Kagome. It was headed straight for her heart to kill her instantly. 'This is it,' Kagome thought. 'If Inuyasha doesn't get back soon, I'm going to die, and tenseiga is inside of Naraku. So I can't be brought back to life.'

Naraku's tentacle was quickly shooting toward Kagome, but right before it was about to hit, Inuyasha shot up from the bottom of the canyon and sliced Naraku's arm off at his shoulder. "Damn you, Inuyasha!"

Inuyasha landed on the platform with Kagome. "Inuyasha, you saved me." However, when Inuyasha turned his head to look back, Kagome was suddenly frightened. Inuyasha had transformed into a full-blooded youkai. 'He must have dropped Tetsusaiga when he fell,' she thought.

Naraku was faced off with a new, powerful opponent. However, Kagome knew that she had to retrieve Tetsusaiga or Inuyasha would kill all of them once he was done with Naraku.

"What the Hell is that?" Kouga said in amazement. "That's Inuyasha! But…" He sniffed the air. "His blood is completely different. It's as though he's a full-blooded youkai now."

Everyone knew they had to get out of there. They couldn't risk getting in the way of Inuyasha's fight now, or he might not hesitate to tear them open.

Naraku began to laugh again. "So this is your henyou transformation Inuyasha. I had been expecting to run into it sooner or later."

Kagome ran off to the side of the ledge. "Shippou, I need your help," he told him. Shippou, frozen from fright nodded slightly. "I need you to take me down to the bottom of this canyon to retrieve Inuyasha's Tetsusaiga and my bow and arrows. Shippou was too frightened though. He was frozen stiff. "Shippou! Snap out of it! You have to be strong, remember!" Finally, Shippou had the confidence boost he needed.

"Okay, Kagome. Transform!"

The battle between Inuyasha and Naraku waged on. Naraku was now more powerful than ever, having finally absorbed Inuyasha's full-youkai brother, Sesshoumaru. And now that he had Kagura back, he also had a lot more youki to use.

However, the battle started out with a surprise. Inuyasha appeared instantly in front of Naraku and hit him downwards. Naraku hit into the canyon wall, causing a huge avalanche. Inuyasha immediately followed this up by darting after him and throwing him into the opposite wall, and then landing a horrifying kick in Naraku's gut.

Naraku got up and scoffed. "If that's the best you can do, you won't be able to defeat me," Naraku said, wiping the blood away from his mouth.

Down below, the avalanche had reached Kagome and Shippou. Shippou began to scream and move back and forth trying to dodge the rocks, but to no avail, as one of the rocks landed right on his head, almost hitting Kagome.

Shippou continued to fall, knocked out and untransformed, and Kagome managed to grab onto a root sticking out of the canyon wall. "That was close. Shippou! Are you okay?" There was no response.

It was Naraku's turn to retaliate against the transformed hanyou. He began filling the space with his miasma, completely concealing his position.

Inuyasha looked around and tried to find him, following his killer instincts ready to pounce at the moment he saw him, but he couldn't be seen through the thick miasma. Even in his transformed state, Inuyasha could only smell miasma and couldn't even locate Naraku with his nose. However, Naraku knew exactly where Inuyasha was.

A tentacle suddenly sprung out of the miasma and caught Inuyasha in the stomach. This was planned to have been followed up with his other arm piercing through Inuyasha, but instead, Inuyasha, angry, even for his transformed state, grabbed hold of the tentacle sticking through him and bit right through it.

This didn't really matter much since Naraku's arms seemed to be the most expendable part of his body. However, Inuyasha followed the retracting tentacle right to where Naraku was hiding. He powered up his youki, causing a red aura to form around Inuyasha's entire body. Then he dashed at Naraku and began an assault of bashing him with various attacks, punching, kicking, clawing, and biting Naraku, causing him to bleed everywhere.

Meanwhile, Kagome began scaling down the side of the canyon wall, actively keeping an eye out for Shippou, the Tetsusaiga, and her arrows. 'I can do this,' she told herself. 'It's just like climbing one of those rock walls, except on a rock wall you have a safety rope, and if I fall on this…' She glanced down into the darkness, which caused her to nearly slip. 'I just need to keep focused.'

Then, on the other side of the canyon, she could see Shippou knocked out. "Shippou! Shippou, can you hear me?" she called, but he was still out cold. She decided she was going to have to make it over there somehow. So she began looking around for anything she can use. Of course, as luck would have it, there was nothing. So she had to make a leap of faith. She jumped off of the wall side and toward Shippou.

As she quickly began to descend toward Shippou, she realized that she wasn't going to make it. So she did what any person would have done, she began to scream franticly as she tried to reach onto the ledge. Luckily for her, Shippou had finally awoken to the sound of her screams and had just enough time to grab her hand.

"Shippou, you saved me!" Kagome said with a big smile. However, Shippou was too small to be able to hold her up, and he too fell off the side of the ledge, plummeting toward the ground. So Shippou transformed again and caught Kagome a few yards away from the ground.

Naraku had been badly wounded by Inuyasha. Both warriors had lost a lot of energy, and they were both breathing hard, but Naraku had another trick up his sleeve. "Go ahead and attack me as much as you want, Inuyasha. You will only be causing your brother to die more quickly." Naraku began leeching energy from Kagura and Sesshoumaru to replenish his own.

The battle continued as Naraku struck Inuyasha again, flinging him into the wall, and then followed up by stabbing him in the shoulder with his newly grown arm. Inuyasha used his claws to tear through the arm and launched himself, head first into Naraku. Then, Inuyasha sliced Naraku on the shoulder and then on his stomach. He continued ruthlessly slashing up Naraku with no regard for his brother's safety or the safety of Kagura, and in this state of mind, only had the words "death" and "kill" burned into his brain.

Just as Naraku began draining energy from the youkai he absorbed, there was a turn of events. An arrow from the top of the canyon fired down and went directly through Naraku. He looked up to see who it was to reveal that Kikyou had come and joined the battle.

The arrow that Kikyou shot left Naraku as nothing more than a floating head, and Kagura and Sesshoumaru were released from Naraku's grasp. And from below came a familiar sound. It was the sound of Kagome's voice. "Osuwari!" Inuyasha was slammed into the ground and brought back from his transformation. "Now Inuyasha!" she said, tossing him Tetsusaiga.

Inuyasha unsheathed it and it immediately transformed in his hands. "This is it Naraku! Bakuryuuha!"

"Don't get in my way Inuyasha; this is still my fight! Souryuuha!" The power of each youkai's sword combined together and met with Naraku and a barrier he created to preserve his last ounce of life.

"It's still not enough to defeat me," Naraku taunted, using every last ounce of energy to hold the barrier. Then, Kagome fired one of her arrows in the middle of the power struggle, causing a massive explosion, leaving Naraku as nothing more than a few pieces of floating flesh.

"It looks like it's time for clean up, Miroku said, rejoining the battle. "Kazaana!" He opened his wind tunnel and sucked in the remnants of Naraku. The battle was finally over.

With the passing of Naraku, Kikyou no longer had a reason to stay alive. She was finally ready to return to the place she was supposed to have stayed, but Inuyasha couldn't let her go so easily. "Kikyou!" he shouted after her. "You can't leave now. I don't want you to leave!"   
"Inuyasha, your place is here with Kagome. She is the one you should be thinking about. So forget about me and go be happy with Kagome. Naraku is dead, and you don't need to protect me from Naraku anymore. You have to move on, Inuyasha."

"Kikyou…" Inuyasha said with a look of compassion in his eyes. "Thank you Kikyou, I will always remember you, just as you will always remember me. There's no helping that. You're right though, my place is here with Kagome, and your time here is done."

"I will miss you, too," she told him, and walked off to find a suitable place to die.

"Inuyasha…" Kagome said and then stopped. Inuyasha was crying, even though he tried to hide it. "I'm sorry Inuyasha; I know you wanted to be with her." A sad expression came across Kagome's face.

Inuyasha looked back at her and smiled. "Don't be ridiculous, moron. I want to be with you."

With that, the two embraced each other their arms.

Later, Kagome and Inuyasha continued traveling together, exploring the world for more people who needed their help and Inuyasha never stopped trying to get stronger.

Kouga and Sesshoumaru continued to be Inuyasha's rivals, as they too kept trying to get stronger as well in a never ending quest for power.

As for the shikon no tama, it was returned to Midoriko's grave and put back inside of her so that she could finally rest in peace and move on to the afterlife, despite Inuyasha's protests. However, he declared the even without the shikon no tama, he would find a way to become full-blooded youkai no matter what. Kagome just giggled at his determination.

Miroku and Sango ended up settling down and having twenty children. After all the women he asked to bare his child, Sango finally did. Shippou decided that he would stay behind and help Miroku and Sango take care of all the little children, and he would join up with Inuyasha and Kagome again when he became stronger.

As for Kouga, Kagome finally got the nerve to tell him that she was not interested, but he didn't take it so hard, since he kind of already knew. And since the shikon no tama was completed and disappeared with Midoriko, there really wasn't any reason he had to search for the jewel shards either. So he finally confessed that he remembered his promise to Ayame and ended up marrying her like her promised.

Later, Inuyasha and Kagome went to Kikyou's grave and said a prayer for her with Miroku's help. As they were about to leave, Inuyasha grabs something from his kimono and put it on the grave. "What was that you put on Kikyou's grave?" Kagome would later ask him.

"Nothing really," he replied.

At the base of Kikyou's headstone sat a small container of Inuyasha's mom's makeup that he had given to Kikyou around the time they first met.

Author's notes: Well, I hope you liked the ending. I didn't really want to have to throw this one away (like all of mine in the past), but I wanted to make a fanfict that was accurate with the storyline. So that's why I'm ending this one here and rewriting The Legacy of the Inu no Taishou starting from after Naraku's dead.

I might do a sequel to this one, though, as long as I have enough support from my fans. We'll see how it turns out though.


End file.
